Seattle Weekend

My parents came up for the weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day with us. We picked them up Saturday morning and started our weekend of fun. We bought the Seattle city passes (which I highly recommend) and had such a great time! I have never done anything in Seattle besides Mariners and Pike's Market, my parents briefly did the EMP and Space Needle, and it had been years for Lane. The city pass includes: Seattle Aquarium, a boat tour, 2 rides up the Space Needle (1 day, 1 night), EMP-Experience Music Project, Pacific Science Center, and either the Wildlife Zoo OR the Museum of Flight...all for $60! So as you could imagine, we were go-go-go for a couple days.

We started off with the aquarium.

Then we walked around Pike's Market, grabbed some lunch at Ivar's, and then went on our boat tour.

After our boat tour we headed over to our hotel in Bellevue and relaxed. For dinner we ate at this Chinese place called Toy's Cafe. I also highly recommend this because it was DELICIOUS! Very impressed! After our long day we were all exhausted and feeling fat so we went to bed at about 9:30pm!

Sunday we started and ended our day with our trips up the Space Needle, which was beautiful!

After our first trip up we went to the EMP which was a lot of fun. I could have spent more time in there playing with all the instruments.

After the EMP we ate lunch at the food court in the Seattle Center and then went to the Pacific Science Center. I think we all would have enjoyed it a little more if we had little kids with us; either that or just plain hated it. ;) It is pretty cool, but just aimed more towards children. My favorite part was the butterfly exhibit and the over sized chairs/table. Part of our visit there included an Imax movie. We chose to watch Sea Rex. I highly discourage that! It was ridiculous. We just made fun of it, so I guess it was worth a few laughs.

The weather was perfect for us all of Saturday and Sunday and we ended our night eating at the Cheesecake Factory...yum! Monday morning we hit up the Museum of Flight because it was too rainy for the zoo, and even for being all museum-ed out, I think we all enjoyed that one. It was pretty cool! I would have enjoyed it more if we hadn't been go-go-go the past two days. We drove back to Wenatchee and went and saw The Vow and ate at EZ's. Tuesday (Valentine's Day) we lounged around and ate at Country Boys. We lounged around some more and then sent my parents off. It was such a great weekend--so much fun and many awesome memories built! Thanks Dad and Mom!

After dropping my parents off Lane and I grabbed some food, bought some candy, foot scrub, and face masks and had a relaxing evening. Perfect weekend!

PS. 4 years ago on Valentine's Day, Lane proposed.

Hello 2012

I haven't written down any goals yet simply because most of them are always the same and are continual goals I will always have to work at. There are some new ones though, and just so that I have them documented for this year, here they are:

• Read the Book of Mormon- Make it a daily routine.
• Be a nicer/more loving wife.
• Get AND stay in shape!
• Limit soda drinking- along with eat healthier.
• Challenge my taste buds- keep trying seafood/mushrooms.
• Be more of an optimist.
• Visit the East Coast- Leah is my excuse!
• Make a friend- find ways to serve more freely.
• Stop being so OCD about little things- I have a long list.
• Finish school off strong- be assertive in student teaching/applying/interviewing!
• Make a baby!

SO, we shall see how well I do on these come December 2012! 2011 surprised me with a new home, a nephew, and many other blessings. I am excited for the adventures this year will bring. I hope to be a strong-willed college graduate, possibly a teacher, a sister-in-law (to my side), a missionary's sister, an awesome wife, and a mommy-to-be/a mom! Here's to the new year!

Santa Hats

My mom and I made these CUTE Santa hats when I was home. They're pretty simple, but if you do a lot of them it gets a little tedious. They turned out adorable though, I think!

This is all you need: Bugles, red chocolate melts, mini marshmallows, and white sprinkles.

Dip the Bugles in the chocolate and lay them out on wax paper. Let them dry for about 10min and then dip the ends for the marshmallows and sprinkles.

...and Voila!

Christmas in Cali 2011

I got to go home for Christmas to visit my family this year...and it was amazing. I had so much fun and built so many memories! Lane was able to meet me down in So.Cal after a week.

I planned my trip so that I could attend Allie's baptism. Allie is my brother's girlfriend and I think she is amazing for her courage, spirit, strength, and great example. She's a sweet girl! It was so neat to be a part of her special day.

My trip was relaxing being at home. My mom took me to get these nice pedicures where they soak your feet in red wine, oranges, and rose pedals in warm water (great for all the antioxidants?). We went and saw a couple movies. We spent time with some good friends, and ate good food, and did some shopping. Devin came home from BYU-Hawaii almost a week after I got there so we made a big deal of it with all his friends at the airport. It was pretty exciting. Then we made our drive down to So.Cal to be with the rest of our family. It was so fun to see Britt, the Fosters, MacBeths, Warrs, and Mitchells. Down there we enjoyed our 80 degree weather with a day at the beach, ate some good food, went to a movie, decorated cookies, looked at beautiful lights, played games, and spent time with family!

*Why I love my parent's house all year round:

*Why I love my parent's house during Christmas time:

Christmas day we woke up and went to Britt's apartment. She made us some yummy breakfast, and we opened presents. Not only was I spoiled at home with my family, but for Christmas too! We spent the rest of the day at Mimi & Poppi's house with all my dad's brothers' families and his cousin. We ate some yummy food and enjoyed the musical talents of that side of the family. It was so relaxing and fun to be with my family for Christmas!

~Sigh~

This quarter has definitely been the most stressful and frustrating. I'm finally to the point where I'm not really stressed because I only have a couple assignments left. Let's just say that I'm so ready and relieved to be done with this one; even if I'm not going to make straight A's this time : /...Oh well. One quarter left and then student teaching!

I decided to not put up decorations for Christmas this year because I'll only have a week of freedom and being home until I head to see my family. I needed to take breaks from homework though so I ended up putting up some. This is the extent though, and no tree this year (which is kind of funny because last year I was so anxious to put it up, that the minute the flooring was put in, in the corner where I wanted the tree, I put it up. We didn't live here yet, and not all the flooring was in, but my tree was up and that's all that mattered)! This should hold me over though and hopefully put me in the Christmas spirit!

Can't wait to see my family and enjoy Christmas with them! (This is the first time Lane will spend Christmas day with my family)

Halloween Party and a Baby Shower for Two.

We decided to throw a Halloween party this year. I had been so busy with school and work so I didn't have much time to plan it. Everything turned out great though and we had a good turn out (about 50 guests)!

Earlier in the week Lane gutted the backyard by removing the pool and hot tub, so he also spent a lot of time putting together a firepit to "roast a ghost." Since it was a weeknight, everything was a bit rushed to go trick-or-treating so it didn't really get used much.

Lane and I were Wayne & Garth from Wayne's World.

3 days later I hosted a baby shower for Leah and another friend, Jacqui at our house. I definitely had no time to plan for that but my friend Lyssa (bless her heart) spent so much time putting together the adorable decorations "Sprinkled with Love" and all the goodies. She also took better pictures!

One of the games was to make a collage of what you think each baby would look like. Kim went all out! It was pretty hilarious.

No more parties for a while!

So close, but yet, so far.

Graduation. It's so close! That's what I have to keep telling myself. I'm in my second to last quarter and then student teaching, but I'm struggling with the motivation again. I don't know if it's the weather changing, or simply just senioritis. So...I need some mini-milestones for along the way to June:

-Halloween Party
-Leah & Jacqui's baby shower
-Breaking Dawn Part I
-Brady, Leah, Leo, and baby girl move :'(
-Thanksgiving
-End of quarter (Dec. 9th-ish)
-California!
-Allie's baptism
-Christmas
-Jenna's baby
-New Year
-Last quarter begins
-Erin's baby (I'm an Aunt!--again)
-Valentine's Day
-Hunger Games
-Leah's baby
-Easter
-Student teaching! (ahh!)
-May birthdays: Lane, Dad, Trev, Dev, Blake, Tim, Beth, and so on
-Mother's day
-4th Anniversary
GRADUATION!!

Now, I know I will add to my list but I don't plan very far in advance. At least I have stuff to check off my list and move me closer! Now I just need to focus, focus!