drumroll pleeeeaaase...

michael and i are moving.

TO SEATTLE!!

i die.
{source}

so my brilliant/charming/amazing husband landed an internship with the pwc office in downtown seattle. the reason he was gone for a whole week (while i moped around back in provo, missing out on the adventure) was because he was busy interviewing with a bunch of different accounting firms. after much deliberation, we decided that pwc was the best fit for our little family and sealed the deal. we are so excited!

and to be completely selfish... I LOVE SEATTLE. why, you ask?

1. i was born there 

2. it rains allll the time 

3. hippies 

4. the ocean (so, so close) 

5. the mariners 

6. new hobby: kayaking 

7. puppy! (coming soon) 

8. cool names of places to live 

(issaquah, sammamish, snoqualmie) 

9. seafood. sigh. 

10. close(r) to baker :)

his internship starts in the middle of june, so we still have a few months, but only a few :)

ps: michael is pretty sad to leave utah :(

the cuteness

1. i am thankful for the people i love who have taken care of me this week!
turns out that michael has been out of town all week... and my days have been filled with extreme boredom interjected with bursts of fun toward the end of the day. on tuesday, jill & brandon took me in, fed me lasagna, talked baker bulldog football, and then turned on the biggest loser. and then on wednesday, emi went shopping with me at h&m (love it), then brought me home with her for some yummy tilapia and modern family. i love you guys!

2. i am thankful for a secret surprise.
sorry kiddos, i can't disclose details (yet!), but it was to do with why michael has been out of town... stay tuned :) it's good, trust me. and before you ask, no, i am not pregnant. sorry mom!


3. i am thankful for this video:
(please ignore the fact that the guy is just hanging out in his whitie tighties)

4. i am also thankful for this video:
(seriously, watch the whole thing. i know it's 15 minutes long, but trust me, you won't regret a 15 minute investment in this video. it maaaybe made me full-out cry. it's just that cute)

5. i am thankful that byu basketball is baaaack!

i know we technically lost the season opener against utah state, but i smell a killer season coming on. and i can't lie, i miss the jimmer, but i'm working on moving on.

6. i am thankful that i only have 11 days of school left in my undergraduate career.
yes yes yes x infinity.

maybe i won't be an editor after all...

i just got an email saying that there is a job opening at the hogle zoo...

how fun would it be to have this little cutie as a coworker?
i mean really.
{source}

and wanna know how i'm wasting my time these days? yeah, you could call it an addiction. my little brother's football team is playing in the state tournament and i can't get enough of the trash talk in the forums. it's great. my favorite post i've read so far?

"I have read about the Siuslaw [the team they are playing on Saturday] power running game. Sounds impressive indeed. But, your boys will get to say hello to our Colton [spelled wrong] Richards on Saturday. I will leave it at that:-)"

cracks me up.

foods i will never love

michael always teases me about the very close connection between my mind and my stomach. because when i am hungry, there is nothing else on my mind. my claws come out and i turn into this guy:

also, turns out that i rarely encounter a food that i do not like. but. there are some definite exceptions. the foods that i do not eat under any circumstance and am determined to never, ever enjoy.

1. cilantro

mortal enemy.

i love mexican food. probably to an unhealthy extent. but cilantro? no thank you, you make me gag.


2. bleu cheese

do you know what that green stuff is?
it's mold.

disgusting. and spelled wrong.


3. oj

i like oranges. i like juice. but i do not like orange juice. ever ever ever.

however, if anyone were to offer me ice cream (of any flavor and of any quantity)... 

bffs?

yes. forever.

this is one of those tmi posts.

(you have been warned.)

lately the husband has been making a few insinuations about a little situation that has been developing on my upper lip. looks something like this:

the horror.

so tonight i finally decided to face this situation head-on. and for those of you who are curious (you know who you are. and if you're not one of the curious, maybe you should become curious before your husband starts making insinuations about it...), i thought i might share my perfected-over-the-years 'stache removal system. 

the first several times i decided to wax some part of my face (eyebrows or muh-st-ah-shh), my skin would freak out on me and break out really badly anywhere the wax had touched. and what's worse than a girl-stache? a mustache-shaped breakout on your upper lip. yikes. not attractive. and, unfortunately, incredibly resilient (think a solid 10 days of this).

so if you have this problem and have sworn off waxing to avoid the mustache-breakout, here is the routine that i have come up with to avoid such problems:

1: color in your mustache with mascara.

2: go to class.

ha, jk. don't do that. here's what you should really do:

1: buy this genius stuff. it is easy to use and super effective. you can also find it at sally beauty. 

2: wait until the end of the day right before you are about to go to bed and then take tylenol/advil/ibprofen or whatever kind of painkiller you use and wait 30 minutes. it's not a good idea to do this right before you head out the door for the day...

3. wash the whole area that you are going to wax with regular soap and water so that any bacteria or makeup is cleaned off.

4. heat up the wax in the microwave in 15 second intervals. once it is gooey (but not runny, you don't want it to be too hot), use an applicator to cover the whole area. it dries really fast, so you don't have to worry about it dripping anywhere it's not supposed to. wait until it has completely dried and then...

5. this is the rough part. rip. it. off. do it fast, just like a bandaid. just take a deep breath and riiiip.

6. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR SKIN!! your fingers have all kinds of bacteria on them and you have a fresh layer of skin that has never seen the air. instead, wash your skin with regular soap and water again until all of the waxy residue is cleaned off and the skin no longer feels tacky. i usually have to wash it about three times before it's all clean. again, don't use a facial cleanser because they usually have benzoyl peroxide in them which can really irritate your already-irritated skin.

7. antibiotic ointment. slather it all over your freshly-waxed skin so that any bacteria that tries to wreak havoc on your complexion is KILLED.

8. go to sleep. in the morning your face will look perfect. well... i can't guarantee perfection. but at least it will look 'stache-less and clear :)

a few of my favorite things

i think i'm going to like this thankful thursday posting thing :)


1. i am thankful for the celine dion holiday station on pandora.

mmm yes. i love me some christmas music. on november 1st, i switch my pandora station from the texas chainsaw massacre score (you know, for halloween....) to more festive stuff. right now buble is singing softly in my ears. sigh. i love it.

2. i am thankful for bones!

no, not the bones in my body (though i guess i am thankful for those...). i am thankful that the bones season premier is tonight! and bones and booth are preggo! yes yes and yes.

{source}

3. i am thankful for warm socks.

little did i know on march 25 when i said yes to the big question that the rest of my life would be filled with freezing cold nights. here in early november when the temperature hovers around the freezing level, michael insists on sleeping with the window open. am i kidding? not a chance. if i would have known this would happen, i definitely would have picked the other side of the bed. you know, the side that isn't right next to the window. but i didn't. and it's too late to go back now. but i am grateful for my warm socks help keep me cozy during the nights when i can literally see my breath. in my own apartment. yes, that is a true story. and guess what made it onto my christmas list this year. yes. more warm socks.

4. i am thankful for class getting out early. 
i don't feel like this one needs to be explained. 10 minutes early? yes please. i'll take it.

5. i am thankful for my boots.
i don't quite need them (yet), but it's nice to know that they will be there waiting for me when the snow starts falling from the sky and onto my party.

6. i am thankful for the fact that i only have 21 days. left. of. school.

21 days until freedom! yessss! now to be fair, it's not complete 100% freedom... michael starts getting nervous when i talk like that because it makes him think that i will just sit around the house all day eating ice cream and watching past episodes of grey's anatomy. but no. i will get a job following graduation. sigh. 

(of course, the job will only come after i have spend an adequate time recuperating from the past years by eating ice cream and watching past episodes of grey's anatomy)

thankful thursday

(as someone who lacks a certain amount of creativity, i definitely did not come up with thankful thursday blogging all on my lonesome... but i'm definitely stealing adopting it. because everybody needs a bit more thankfulness in their lives, no?)


1. i am thankful for people who know how to do my hair.
because guess what. i am not one of them. unfortunately i was not blessed with the skill-set to have amazing hair everyday, but today i got a haircut. from meredith b. who used to live in my ward. i love spending a little bit of my day with her, she's great (ps if you want her info, let me know. she is really good at what she does).

2. i am thankful for colorful pens.
i have never been one of those girls who used colorful pens (well, maybe for a year there when colored gel pens were all the rage circa 2000). in fact, i was a bit judgmental when i saw girls using brightly colored pens to take notes (i know, i'm a jerk). but. then my black pen ran out and and my life went technicolor:

black notes

blue notes

green notes

purple notes

and moving into the most current phase: teal notes

i love it.

3. i am thankful for a clean sink.
it is no secret around my part of the woods that i hate doing dishes. i would rather scrub a toilet with my own hair than do dishes. i hate, detest, loathe and abhor doing dishes. so, so much. but yesterday i forced myself to stand in front of the sink for an inordinate amount of time to do the dang dishes. and today i have a clean sink. sigh. it felt so, so good to wake up to that.

4. i am thankful for michael's collection of jackets.
the boy has too many. so i borrow them frequently so they all get a little bit of love. call me crazy, but wearing his oversized clothing is the best. sweats. t-shirts. JACKETS. mmm... i'm wearing one right now and feeling quite cozy. they just make clothes for guys different than they do for girls and i like the difference every once-in-awhile.

5. i am thankful for crunchy leaves and weather that is cold enough to make me wear mittens.
fall is great, no? byu football games, picnics in the canyon, the smell of some rogue fire burning somewhere... i love it. it makes me so happy to wake up every morning. i especially love it when it's overcast... oh geez, just give me some soup and i am the happiest thing you've ever seen.

6. i am thankful for friendly strangers.
i have realized lately that my smile that i hand out to strangers looks a little like an unfriendly grimace. so instead of grimacing at people i randomly make eye contact with, i have started giving them the full-toothed smile. why? because i happened to walk by a friendly freshman boy who looked way to eager to be walking around byu campus the other day. and when he sent me his stranger smile, it was a full-toothed "there is nothing i'd rather be doing than smiling at you, stranger" smile. so i've been trying to pass along the freshman-boy smile to my strangers.

jack o.

in the spirit of halloween, me and michael tackled the great halloween tradition of pumpkin carving (because i am just so in love with all things halloween. poor boy. i don't think he knew what he was getting into when he bought that ring). while he was off in the testing center, i went to smith's to get the supplies:

i finally found a good use for all of the wallstreet journals lying around our house...

and then may or may not have had a half hour dance party by myself while i waited for him to finish his test.

cutie husband carving his cutie pumpkin

guess who carved which pumpkin!
hint: the one on the right was carved by the one
who loves byu and saving money...

ps: michael made a deal with me that he would dress up for halloween if i finish the rest of the thank you letters from our wedding by saturday (yes, we still have some left... shameful, i know). which means that FRANKENSTEIN & BRIDE are coming to town in exactly 1 week :)

a very bieber christmas

what way to better spend the holidays than listening to justin bieber's softly changing voice singing about the most wonderful time of the year (the other most wonderful time of the year)?

i can't wait.

ps: thank you, audrey, for bringing this to my attention. i anticipate that my yuletide experience will be greatly enhanced by the biebs.

the most wonderful time of the year:

HALLOWEEN.

call me crazy, but i love it. way too much. when i was just a little thing (think 10 awkward years old, somewhere along the lines of this:

hot, no?)

i started reading nancy drew mysteries. the boxcar children mysteries. and yes, i dabbled in some goosebumps. around this time, i fell in love with all things creepy. and halloween became a time when i could let that little bit of crazy out of the box.

today i still love love love it. back at the end of september this year i put up some red gelly hands in our window that look like bloody handprints. the next week a girl from our ward told me that her little four-year-old daughter saw them and asked, "mamma, why is it like someone died?"

whoops...

oh well. my love for halloween is no respecter of sunbeams. and this year i might have gone a bit nuts, it being the first halloween that i've had a space that is alllll mine to decorate. poor michael.

this is the best. white candles dipped in red candle wax. genius.

who doesn't love fake spiders? excluding arachnophobics, of course...

yes, that is a string of led eyeball lghts.

i can't wait for trick or treaters! we're gonna scare them so bad.... muwahaha!

dark mark

the other night i was walking past my mirror when i noticed something suspicious on my back. something that hadn't been there the last time i checked. it was a brand. new. creepy. mole.

i shudder.

well i might have freaked out a bit... unfortunately my discovery took place moments before i climbed into my bed. so naturally i fell asleep thinking about melanoma. and brightly colored banbandas to cover my chemotherapied head. and if me and michael would have time to squeeze in a baby before my untimely death. and my widower husband at age 23.

hi, my name is dani and i am a hypochondriac.

the very next morning i made an appointment with the dermatologist the moment the sun was in the sky and then skipped off to class filled with a new-found resolve to take tim mcgraw's advice.

by the time my appointment rolled around the next morning at 11:10, i was fully ready to go look for that bull named fu man chu, completely braced for devastating news. and after 30 minutes of waiting, i finally met the doctor, who showed absolutely zero signs of concern. all he did was numb me up, cut that creeper off of my back, slap on a tiny little bandaid and send me out the door. i have to admit, after 48 hours of frantically imagining the moment of devastation, it was pretty anticlimactic. but guess what, i'm very happy about that.

so here's my public service announcement for the day/week/month/year/lifetime: WEAR SUNSCREEN!! i wish i would have paid attention to this announcement when i was younger. and if you happen to have been dumb like me back in the day (or even if you weren't, actually): check your body for little black creepers. you do not want to find one of those guys too late.

just do it.

real great weekend

hi all you people we love :)

did anyone else have an awesome weekend? because we definitely did.

it all started with an amaaaazing byu victory over utah state.
we didn't think it could happen going into the 4th quarter (and one of us--the male one of us--was super grumpy because of it), but.

riley nelson and his luscious locks lead us to victory.

and yes, we stormed the field. against utah state. shameful, yes. but i figured that since i'm graduating in december i probably wouldn't get another chance to walk on lavelle's field.why not, right?

the storming begins.

me and jill get in on the action.

hello blurry cody hoffman.

this game was followed by a 6-page annotated bibliography that i slammed out in 1.5 hours (least fun part of the weekend) in time to be emailed to my professor. yes, i procrastinate. don't judge.

next morning: mountain biking nirvana. sigh. i love this trail.

pretty orangey leaves :)

and the yellow guys.

i know this picture looks like me and michael are getting
zapped onto a spaceship, but that just isn't true, promise.

and the mountain biking was followed by the best bbq that i've ever had in my life and some really really great face time (via tv) with some men who really know what they are talking about. general conference. one of my favorite things out there. and yes, i might have slept through (quite) a few of the talks, but i am excited to read every word that was said in the very near future. i. love. conference.

more fun? yes. more fun. this weekend was jam packed with it.

a two-day everton party complete with a consumption of massive quantities of sugar, watching inordinate amounts of college football, gooooood sunday dinner, making fun of the liberal in the family, an expedition to iggy's, lots of time playing catch (which i may or may not have looked real bad doing), and searching for the perfect car for jackson hole next week.

all in all, a fantastic weekend and i'm sad that it's going to be over in a few hours.
sigh.
monday is coming too soon.

mid-week date night

because we are so adorably newlywed and still love spending time with each other (or because we were so sick of studying and/or working at home...) me and michael decided to head out on a date to the batting cages at trafalga last night.

i don't know why, but my competitive alter-ego (who i secretly refer to as rhonda) rears her manly head every time anything even resembling a sporting event is undertaken. before we had even left provo, i had talked so much smack that you would think i was babe ruth's long-lost love child. i clearly am not. and this became glaringly obvious when i actually stepped up to the plate.

i wore this shirt because i like to think i'm number 1.

clearly my softball shortcomings are glaring. bob moon, my softball coach from 5th and 6th grades could definitely attest to this. in fact, in the whole two seasons that i played on his team, i never once played anywhere besides right field and my batting average was .07. not a joke.

when michael got into the batting cages, i saw a look come over his face that was something akin to what came over liam neeson's face every time he came across a bad guy in taken. needless to say, he kicked my smack-talking butt.

my baseball-playing superstar husband

so me and papa ruth walked away from the cages with our tails between our legs.but at least we got some frozen yogurt afterward to make up for the humiliation at the batting cages :) delish.

silly boy

tonight after my run i walked in the door to find michael watching a pbs documentary about elephants. he insisted that i watch the remainder of the program with him, frequently exclaiming "look, look!" and speaking in thai to the television. i couldn't believe my eyes. or ears.

(source)

he is now insisting that we move to thailand so that he can become a mahoot. which apparently means elephant trainer in thai.

awesome alfredo sauce

i found a recipe for the BEST alfredo sauce that i've ever had. and that's a big statement, because i consider myself a pasta connoisseur. this recipe came from Our Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen. i got it as a wedding present and use it for pretty much everything. here it is:

guiltless alfredo sauce (i have no idea how they say it's guiltless, but whatev)
2 cups milk
1/3 cup (3 oz.) cream cheese
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
3 minced garlic cloves
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1. blend milk, cream cheese, flour and salt in a blender until smooth and set aside.

2. in a large nonstick saucepan melt butter on medium-high heat and add the garlic. saute the garlic for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly.

3. add the milk mixture to the pan. stir constantly for 3-4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more or until the sauce thickens, about 6-7 minutes.

4. once the sauce has started to thicken, remove from heat. whisk the cheese into the sauce and immediately cover the pan.

5. allow the sauce to stand for at least 10 minutes before using. it will continue to thicken upon standing. serve immediately.

sooooo good! and guiltless! or so the mormon moms claim...

summer lovin

we love the summer.

and each other.

so i thought this was an appropriate title for this post :)

and turns out that we have been having quite a bit of fun lately.

case in point: moab trip, aka a story of mountain biking, sun burn, and soaring temperatures.

let's just say that we had way too much fun.

on thursday after i got out of class i got home to find the subaru packed and ready for some partying in the desert. shortly after taking off, though, we realized that the sube isn't quite ready for summer... before we even got on the interstate our little car started overheating. having dealt with this same issue last summer, i realized that we would have to drive all the way to moab without air conditioning. eek.

turns out that it wasn't too bad though. we drove all the way with the windows rolled down and country music and THE KILLERS blaring way too loud. i kind of loved it. i feel like that is the true meaning of a road trip. fun fun fun :)

right when we got to town, we ran around downtown trying to find a restaurant with a tv that was on espn so that we could watch the draft. michael wanted to know who the jazz picked and all i really cared about was where jimmer ended up going. the only places we could find were a sports bar (literally a bar. we would have had to show our id's to stay) and a reallllly expensive italian restaurant. our desire to watch the draft proved so great that we ended up staying at said expensive italian restaurant. we even ordered dessert because jimmer hadn't been drafted yet. turns out that our love for the jazz (michael) and jimmer (me) knows no financial constraints...

after our ridiculously expensive dinner, we got to our campsite, set up our cute little tent and then headed out to go on a bike ride at the poison spider trail that was really close to our camp. so. much. fun. but hard! dang, biking on all that red rock is not the same as biking in the wasatch mountains, tell you what. it was real fun though. we didn't get too far because the sun started setting, so we turned around to avoid having to come back in the dark. 

friday morning we woke up and hiked to bowtie and corona arches because the trailhead was right across the street from our site. it was way too fun. we just hung out in the sun for a little bit and admired the awesome arches before heading back. post-hike, we went biking again on the slickrock practice trail (as per the fact that i am really not the best biker in the world and not quite ready to brave the wiles of slickrock in full force). i think this was a good plan because it was so dang hot outside by the time we got there. like a hundred degrees hot. eeeeek.

post-bike ride(s), we found a (nasty) lake to cool off in, ate a picnic, and went to our new campsite (in town, with showers and a POOL!) to go swimming. after observing the other swimmers in the water complaining about how harsh the chemicals were, though, i decided to protect my hair and stay away from that business. michael didn't think twice about it though.

post-swim, we decided to enjoy the other anticipated amenity of the rv park: the showers. hallelujah. just to recap, we had gone on two bike rides, swum in filthy water, and languished in the sun for more than 24-hours without showers. they felt great. the cleanliness didn't last too long though, because we decided to go do the slickrock practice trail again... and it was amazing. it had started to cool down a bit and was absolutely gorgeous. loved loved loved it. 

afterward, we returned to the campsite to find that michael's family had arrived! we helped them set up camp and hung out for awhile before going to bed early so that we could go biking again in the morning.

which leads to probably my favorite bike ride i have experienced of yet: klondike bluffs. so much fun! and it wasn't too terrible for a newbie like me. it ended in arches, so it was gorgeous. i can't wait to go back to moab and do this ride again!

after getting back, we went rafting down the colorado river. this was so fun, but i got absolutely fried. i don't think my thighs have seen that much sun in awhile... i think everybody was a bit sunned-out by the time we got done, so we decided to head home. again, with the widows rolled down :)

best. vacation. ever

cupcakes

as per michael's request (pleading), i made cupcakes last night.

they didn't look quite as cute as this little guy, but they were yummmy.

so as we folded laundry and watched bones, we ate some cupcakes.

but they all just disappeared somehow...

michael turned to me at one point, his mouth full of cupcake, and said:

"i have eaten five cupcakes. (long pause)

i don't feel any remorse."

and then he got up and ate another one.

boys. i tell ya...

father's day

this morning i woke up to find this text from my dad sent late last night:

"it's father's day eve.

i can hardly wait.

mom is downplaying it but

i'm pretty sure she broke the bank on me this year.

hope i can fall asleep tonight."

so on this day, dedicated to fathers of all ages, here are a few of my favorite things about my dad:

1. this picture, taken on new year's eve. there were some families over at my house and we were all playing a game (probably mafia) when all of a sudden we realized that my dad had put these party hats on his head like this. not as a joke, just because he felt like it. and just kept playing the game like no big deal. and then he didn't understand why everyone was laughing. and this story might not have sounded too funny, but i swear it was in real life. trust me.

2. his unconditional love for panda express, chuck-a-rama, and mcdonald's milkshakes

3. the backpacking trips that he took me and jill on when we were growing up

4. how he refers to himself in third person (not infrequently), using the names big mountain ripper, big wave dave, the powder pig (accompanied by snorting sounds), the great white hunter, etc. 

5. the fact that he is such a good listener. seriously, amazing. i don't know where this skill came from, but i am so glad that he has it.

6. has anyone else noticed that he looks like a kid? i like to call it the genetic fountain of youth and am crossing my fingers that it got passed on to me.

7. how much he loves life. seriously, there are so many weird little things that he just loves way too much (polar bears, mt. everest, WWII information, his pigeons, hunting, skiing, etc.) and it makes me want to take part in life as fully as he does.

8. this guy loves to play. i know without question that if he didn't need to make money to support a family, he would be out playing all day every day. i think that i inherited this trait from him and learned to play just as hard (or harder....) than I work.

9. my dad genuinely loves people. in my family we always joke that anywhere he goes he makes a new friend. he loves finding out about people's lives and is better at it than anyone i've ever seen.

10. the 20+ voicemails from him that i have saved up on my phone from him. seriously, not an exaggeration. in fact, there might even be more than that. here are how my favorites start: "hey dani, i'm calling you from my new computer phone [smart phone]. that's what i'm calling you from." and a birthday call "mom is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder for all the pain you put her through 22 years ago. anyway, happy birthday old lady."

he's the best.

and to another notable father, mr. james l. everton:

i am so grateful to have you as my other father! i can't imagine anyone better to fill that spot. i feel so lucky to have married into your family and LOVE every member of it. you are such an amazing man and i will always be grateful for the example that you set for your little pal while he was growing up, because i think he turned out to be a pretty awesome man :)

---

life lesson learned this week: the primary is ROWDY. oh heck, this calling might kill me...

what's been goin on

(title from this awesome song)

so michael has been partying it up at ragnar with his family for the past 24-hours and i have been sitting at home, all alone. this is our first night of marriage that we have spent apart! i was thinking that it would be relaxing to have a night to just read like a maniac, not feeling guilty about neglecting michael. in actuality, i have  been waaay too bored for my own good. in fact, last night i went through every. single. wedding & engagement picture that we have (roughly 1,000) and ate a bit too much ice cream. pretty pathetic, huh?

in the meantime, my cutie husband is off running in this with his awesome family (a few of them, anyway):

the wasatch back.
i have never been more jealous in my entire life.
he was sick all last night but will be finishing his last leg really soon. that boy is hardcore. aaand pretty cute.
PLUS the bryce canyon half marathon is in exactly 28 days. i'm so excited!

---
life lesson learned this week: only two more finals weeks left for each of us until we graduate!! while this isn't necessarily a "life lesson," per se, it is something that really, really, really awesome. i can't wait :)

As per the fact that we have had several demands by an adoring public (Ashley) for a blog update, I feel like now is a good time to relate our adventures in traveling to the lovely utopia of Baker City, OR. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this thriving metropolis, I'll share a few morsels of information. Eat up:

• Human population: 10,000 peeps
• Cattle population: 100,000 cows
• Home of the regal Baker Bulldogs, my alma mater
• Home of Barley Brown's. the BEST restaurant I have encountered in my young life
• Home of a bishop who likes to call strangers from the congregation to the podium in the middle of sacrament meeting to bare their testimony (poor little mikey)
• The prettiest little valley in Oregon
• Home of the dave and beth richards family (or as I like to call them, my favorite people on this earth)

Me and Michael set out on Thursday with high aspirations: leave at 9pm from Provo and arrive in Baker around 5am. After about a half hour of driving, I realized that this probably wasn't the smartest plan we had ever conceived. So we stopped at Michael's house and spent the night, recommencing our journey at 5:30am. After eating too much mcdonald's and drinking a lot of caffeine, we arrived at 11:30am.

Here are some of the great things that we did in order of appearance:

1. Watched Colten's baseball game (they won 30-2. ish.)

2. Went to Barley's. And in case you're curious, the jalapeño chicken pasta is just as good as I remembered

3. Played trivial pursuit for hours

4. Slept in (mmm… yes.)

5. Went to Sycamore Tree where we had a close encounter with a shrew

6. I watched Colten & Michael at the batting cages for about an hour while I read Peace Like a River (AMAZING BOOK! Thanks lynne, for the suggestion. This book is incredible).

7. Went hunting for a rock chuck (a massive squirrel) with Colten and Maddie and came home empty-handed

8. Came up with embarrassing stories about Kennan by request of his mission AP's (there are many. We finally settled on telling about how he dressed up like a girl when he was little and demanded to be called Katie for months at a time and the annual christmas up-chuck that he experienced because of excitement about Santa. And yes, this occurred through high school. Good times)

9. Made stromboli. Impressed my family. Put an end to the ridicule about cooking that I have been subject to since a failed meal years ago...

10. Went to visit dad in the hospital

11. Slept in (glorious)

12. Went to church

13. Played mooore trivial pursuit

14. Got up early again (5:30 Utah time) and left to go back to Happy Valley, just in time to wish colten happy coyote hunting. Turns out that kid is a redneck.

All in all I would say that the pilgrimage to baker was a smashing success. I loooved seeing my family and spending time with them.

My only regret is that Colten didn't shoot his rock chuck. Next time though…

Since coming back to Baker, I decided to become a gardener. An indoor gardener, as per the fact that we live in an apartment complex, but a gardener nonetheless. Therefore, I purchased a living basil plant, stuck it in a glass of water, which I diligently watered every hour on the hour, and then watched it slowly die. While Michael takes this as a sign that I am not meant to be a gardener, I have only become more determined to mother another basil plant to full health. And then I will harvest its leaves and eat them in my food.

Ps: Bentley. Wow. There are no words. Is anyone else a bit excited to see the showdown next week?

Pss: Is anyone else out there way too excited for Expedition Impossible? I have a countdown in my day planner to its premiere (9 days).

Psss: SYTYCD is baaaack!! Sigh.

Pssss: I clearly love summer tv a bit too much.

---

Life lesson learned this week: Marry someone who will do the dishes for you after you've made a mess of the kitchen and had a bad day. I did, and I could not be happier with my decision. But I'm pretty sure I married the best fish in the metaphorical sea, so sorry for all you girls out there who have to settle for 2nd best. Sigh. He's so great.

23

for those of you who couldn't come to mine and michael's reception, please refer to this lovely video made by mr. russ wilson, a cinematographic genius (as far as i am concerned). i love this video!

also, to update you on the life of the evertons, here is the rundown:

it was michael's birthday on tuesday! i'm pretty sure i was way more excited about it than he was... i wrapped his presents up the day before but then couldn't wait for morning and made him open one up right at midnight. it was great. and what did this little cutie get for his birthday, you ask? well. i got him rainbows flip flops (because he loves them so) and p90x (on ksl for cheap cheap cheap from another sketchy character). and his parents got him a TENT! so here's the thing. it is technically michael's birthday present, but i am gonna use that thing every time he does, so it was like my birthday too! we were so excited about it that we set it up in our living room last night, filled it with pillows and blankets and watched secretariat from inside of it. which, btw, is a gooooood movie. i was dubious, but happily proven wrong. everyone reading this: go watch it! thank you thank you jim & leanne!

also for michael's birthday we went to cafe rio for lunch (because he loves it way too much) and went mountain biking (another one of his obsessions). i think that if we could have gone skiing too he would have passed out with happiness and not revived until his 24th birthday.

also, new obsession: healthy eating. michael and i have been talking about eating healthy for years now (or months, rather...). well i don't think that he fully understood what he was getting himself into because i have plunged both of us (him more reluctantly) head-first into an almost gluten-free lifestyle. it's so fun! there is stuff out there called coconut oil that is amaaazing for your body. who knew? and flour? you can make it out of quinoa! whoa. organic fruit? yes yes yes. i'm pretty much planning on revolutionizing the world.

anyway, that's all for today. i'm off to bed. 11pm is way too late for a boring married woman like me to be awake. sigh. life has changed so much. but i love it :)

---
life lesson learned this week: if your keys are lost, check in the cushions of your couch. they are there, i promise. and now your significant other can go back to not being annoyed at you for constantly stealing his keys. you're welcome.

adventures

right now i am sitting in english 359, bored to the point where i want to stand up and scream. this boredom is compounded by the fact that this class is 2.5 hours long and i'm not even halfway through... sigh. such is the life of an undergraduate student. fortunately, finals for winter 2011 ended two weeks ago and me and michael were able to enjoy a weekend free from any scholastic obligations. it was blissful. i am so excited for that to be a permanent rather than transient phase of life! because it was such a fun weekend, i want to let the whole wide blogosphere know what we were up to:

thursday: my mom and dad came to provo! as per the fact that my (baby) sister graduated from college (before me. eek), they traveled down to watch and spend some time with their favorite child, her husband, jill, and brandon. it was fun. we all went hot tubbing for way too long and had fun laughing.

friday: jill graduated! it was fun to be there and see her walk. we saw some old friends and then went to panda express to celebrate (my dad loves that place way too much and we just couldn't say no to him). after that we took off for jackson hole to meet up with michael's family for the rest of the weekend. i saw a different side of michael on friday night, let me tell you. we watched "what a girl wants" and he quoted most of the movie along with it. it was lovely.

saturday: michael, jim and alec woke up way too early for a vacation and literally hiked up a snow-covered mountain (michael with his skis and boots strapped to his back) and then skied all the way down. they are so hardcore. after they got back, me, emily and ashley went on a 6-mile run in the park. and i think that those two things pretty effectively sum up the major difference between my family and the evertons. when my family goes on vacation, we do so to take a break from life and enjoy not doing too much. but i know that when i go on vacation with the evertons, i should rest up for a few days so that i have enough energy to keep up with all of their crazy adventures. i love it.

sunday: easter! we played bananagrams way too much (if that's even possible), went to church, ate dinner, and went on a walk before ashley, annie, emily & alec took off to go back home. after they left, me, michael and his parents drove out to jackson lake (this huuuge frozen lake), took pictures of us walking on the ice, spit over the bridge into the reservoir, and saw all kinds of wildlife (like bison. and moose. and giant birds. it's amazing how many wild animals are running around living in that area. it is gorgeous).

monday: the conclusion of our great trip to jackson. it was so much fun! but it felt good to walk through the door into our cute little home.

since the trip, me and michael have been busy busy busy with spring term, visiting las vegas (i did a triathlon. yes, for real), budgeting, trying to stay up on laundry, and waiting patiently for warmer weather to come permanently to provo.

oh, and did i mention that i got a mountain bike? well i did. we bought it from a drug dealer. with a pitbull. not a joke.

happy may!