Cody and Meg

PRE CHRISTMAS VISITORS

2012-01-16T10:31:00.000-08:00

The week before Christmas Ben, Lauren, and baby Blair came for a visit. They had been talking about coming out for quite a while so when Lauren booked a surprise birthday flight for Ben in hopes of making it to the monday night game we were more than thrilled! The weekend of the game happened to be the same weekend as Lauren's birthday so we got to celebrate with her too!

Lauren and Ben were perfectly happy hanging out, playing games, and eating good food but because Ben had never visited San Francisco before we hit a couple of the tourist spots too. We went to The Golden Gate, went into Sauselito for some dining and shopping, and that night we got lucky and got tickets to the Oakland vs Sacramento game and got to see Jimmer in his first game as a profesh! Since we had baby Blair we had to plan our days so she could get a little bit of nap time in. So we hung out in Palo Alto a bit. Went to Fiesta Del Mar, a must if you ever visit! Ate lots of yummy food, played games and hung out.

The sun was so bright that day!

Hanging in Sausalito

Before the Warriors game at Fentons. Blair was in a sugar coma. I love this face!

We have a huge swing in our backyard that never gets used because we have no small children to play on it right? Well, wrong. My husband is a kid at heart and loves to push people on the swing. Here is Lauren practicing her acrobatic skills! We didn't have to twist her arm too hard to get her to play too!

Baby blair loved it too!

On Monday we ended up going to the 49ers game. I am so happy we made Ben's birthday a success!

Cody and Ben doing the Heisman. Ben was a little reluctant and first but then he came through! So funny!

Thanks guys for coming to visit! Can't wait until next time!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2011-12-21T22:21:00.000-08:00

THE LAST 2 MONTHS

2011-11-16T00:04:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure exactly where the past couple of months have gone but they snuck away from me somehow! Every once and a while my blog would come to mind and I would keep putting it off until today. I had to catch up! So this could be a doozy!

We have been lucky to have some of our family come for some fun visits. First of all in September we had Chad, Syd, Mar, and Car. Syd had never been out to see us and had also never been to San Francisco so we showed her around.

Rode bikes to the Golden Gate

Visited Alcatraz

And hit up a Giants game

No pictures of shopping but as you can assume we did some of that too! Always fun to have the Johnson's/Beck in town for a visit!

Then two weeks after Cody's fam came to visit us, my Mom, Kate, and Sara came for a visit too. My sissies had never been out to visit so as you can imagine we had a blast.

We spent most of the time doing this!

I still laugh out loud at these pics....kate pouring herself some tea inside Teavanna and passing me some through the window! ha ha We get a little silly when we are together!

Then of course we had to head to the city. Food, shopping, etc.

Oh...and the weekend would not be complete without a flash mob...right?

Then in October Cody's step sister Lauren got married so we went to Utah for the wedding and join in on the festivities.

The best pic I had of the two of them. Maybe I'll post a better one later.

Hanging on the temple grounds.

Us, Carly, Chad, and Syd at the wedding dinner.

Then the day after the wedding I flew to Florida to help the Young's out in Disney World.

The whole gang meeting Aladdin and Jasmine.

Me (Vidia, Tinkerbell's friend) and the two Tinker bells, Summer and Laila at the Halloween party.

Me and Barb being sassy!

Me and Ariel aka Lara

Even though we already celebrated Halloween Disney style when we got home we had to do our annual tradition of carving pumpkins. It wouldn't be Halloween without it!

My Edward pumpkin and Cody's minnie mullet man! ha ha He cut the top as if the pumpkin had a mullet. Who say's Cody's not creative!

The finished products!

Whew! So there you have it! Hopefully you didn't fall asleep!

CAMPING

2011-09-17T21:35:00.001-07:00

A few weekends ago we decided we wanted to go on another adventure. We basically threw some clothes in a bag and hit the road. We have been talking about going camping for months if not years so we finally decided to take a crack at it. The camp ground was near Santa Cruz so we didn't have to drive too far and it was the perfect place for amateur campers like us.

As soon as we got there we pitched our tents!

Then we went on a nice little hike of the area. It was really pretty with a view of the ocean!

Cody was so excited he even remembered his camo shorts and his pocket knife

After we got back from our hike Lara and I played cards while the boys looked for fire wood.

This is what Harv came back with. Meet Gandalf!

Our camp site

That night we hung out by the fire and roasted hot dogs and smores!

Like I said amateurs! Our roasting sticks were a bit flimsy!

The next day before we took off we played with the fire for another few hours and had breakfast.

It was a quick trip but well worth it! Hanging with the Barenz is always a good time!

Canada eh?

2011-08-10T19:46:00.001-07:00

This year the Johnson/Beck family vaca was spent in Canada. Alberta to be exact...actually Waterton to be more exact. Cody has been telling me about Canada for the past 6 years and a few weeks ago he finally got to take me there. We spent the week in his extended family's cabin. Waterton is a beautiful place to kick back relax and enjoy the scenery. We relaxed a lot but we also spent the week going on hikes, golfing, looking for bears, eating, shopping, playing games, and hanging by the fire. I am so lucky to have married into such a fun family! Here are a few pictures from our week!

Dave, Mar, Cody and I getting ready to hike Bear's Hump.

Syd and I stopped mid hike to strike a pose!

We made it! It was super windy but the views from the top were amazing! Waterton is so gorgeous!

Cody's "uncle" Don took us on a boat ride on Waterton lake. It was so pretty! I feel like I am going to say that a lot throughout this post!

Playing fashion show in one of the stores. ha ha We got some funny looks!

Right behind our cabin were some more hiking trails. This is what we found when we got to the top! Some of us (by us I mean them) found that if you keep hiking there were some even prettier waterfalls. I was content with these.

We stopped halfway for a good old pic of the fam...

These pictures do not do this lake justice! The lake is in the middle of a glacier so it looks freezing but it was actually really nice. We expected much colder weather than we got. Lucky us!

Dave, Mar, Taryn, and Lauren!

Cody decided he wanted to make our boat ride a bit more exciting so he bet Chad to jump in the lake....Cody forgot that Chad will do pretty much anything....

To earn some money back Cody did it too. They are crazy! The water was FREEZING! I couldn't even put my hand in for too long.

Being proud of the accomplishment!

We all thought it was fun to drive around to see what wild life we could find. Here is some of what we found!

This place is called Red Rock Canyon. It is a really pretty canyon with a river that runs through it. We hiked up through the river as far as we could without having to swim. The water was a bit too cold for that.

Cody and Chad building a fire. They played out there for hours! I think they used all the fire wood for this one.

One of the days was spent up near Cardston to hang out with some of Cody's relatives. They planned a whole day for us. The guys went golfing and later that day we went to his "uncle's" ranch to horse back ride, fish, and hang out.

Cody might kill me for posting this picture!!! Long story....but Cody is VERY allergic to horses, hay, etc etc and I always feel so bad he can't experience the fun so this was the "gear" I thought up for him! And I am proud to say it worked! He rode the horses and was fine!

One of the days we drove up to a place called Many Glacier where we did some more site seeing.

On the way up we stopped here. The water was rushing so fast! It was really pretty but it made me nervous to get too close.

Mar and Dave hanging out. Davey couldn't get enough pics! He was loving life!

This hotel is called The Prince of Whales. It's a really pretty, swedish style hotel in the middle of Loon Lake (That is for you, Dave). It is perched up on a hill so you can see it from all over. It is one of the trademarks of Waterton.

This is us standing up in front of the hotel after we had lunch for the second time there. They had really good chicken wraps.

Inside joke pic! Can you tell who looks the most normal in this pose??

Driving home I snapped this picture. Funny how they do this to the trees to show where the border between Canada and the US is. We heard that this clearing in the trees runs all the way through Alberta and Saskatchewan. Somebody has a fun job :)

So sad our summer vacations are over. I guess we will have to get creative and think of some fun things to do in California!

LAKE POWELL 2011

2011-07-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went on the annual Oviatt family vaca to Lake Powell. As always it was a blast! It gave me my much needed family time. The week was full of late night game nights, wake boarding, tubing, jet skiing, cliff jumping, laying in the sun, junk food, and of course lots of laughter. Here are a few pictures from our week!

SPAIN PART 3: Madrid

2011-06-17T00:26:00.000-07:00

Our final and favorite stop was Madrid! We got off the train took our bags to the hotel and went out for the night and did some exploring of the city. There were so many people out on the town. I think it was like 11 or 12 at night by the time we got out and they were just starting their night. I'm telling you, they are party animals!

The next morning I snapped this picture. A view of Madrid out of our hotel window.

Later on we went on another bike tour because we loved our first one so much.

Looking over the part of the city and a well-known park that I can't remember the name of.

This is an Egyptian temple that we thought was pretty cool. We went inside but it was pretty dark so I didn't take any pictures.

In front of the Royal Palace.

It reminded me of a smaller version of Versailles.

Our bike tour also took us to the Plaza Mayor. Too bad they were having a car show that day, so we didn't get great pictures.

The La Puerta De Alcala arch...

In front of the capitol building on the La Gran Via. Sitting at a stop light where we almost died shortly thereafter.

After the bike tour we went to Retiro park to have some lunch and hang out.

Harv talking into a baguette...

Hanging out eating some lunch. This was one of our favorite parts of the trip. The parks in Madrid are amazingly pretty and clean.

A pond by Retiro park. Earlier in the day our bike guide told us that when you want to make your relationship official you take your partner on a rowboat ride. Very romantic and quite funny!

Walking to the Prado Museum.

The next day we decided to go to the temple. So we hopped on the metro in the pouring rain and went on a hunt to find it. Finally we found it but it was a bit hard especially in a full on down pour! The temple president was so awesome! He did the sealings in both English and Spanish. It was really cool. After that he gave us a tour of the inside of the temple and we grabbed some lunch in the cafeteria.

Such a great way to start off the day!

The rest of the day was spent shopping, site seeing, and eating....

On La Gran Via

This is what the street signs look like in Madrid. They are individual tiles that are mounted to the buildings. It's a pretty way to do it but they can be very hard to see.

Some of our delish tapas! I wish I would have gotten more pictures but they were gone by the time I could get my camera out. Fat Americans!

More hot chocolate and churros! They gave us an enormous tub of hot chocolate. We probably ate only an ounce of it!

Our last night in Madrid we went to some a Turkish bath. Can I just say A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Seriously though, it was the perfect thing to do at 10:00 at night. They have you sit in a series of pools, hot, warm, and cold. Super relaxing and it made us feel like we were getting into some more of the awesomeness that Spain had to offer.

Our last morning was spent at a flea market we found. Not sure what I expected but it was a little disappointing. We were also bummed to be going home.

Us on the plane flight home. Lara being very sad and I think Cody was sick of pictures....what do you think?

So there you have it...SPAIN! Thanks for hanging in!

SPAIN PART 2: Marbella

2011-06-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

We hopped a quick plane flight from Barcelona down to Marbella rented a car and we were off! Our first stop was the Alhambra. Unfortunately the tickets to go inside were sold out even given our efforts of trying to buy them in advance. I guess we will just never know what we missed out on! A bit disappointing though because we drove quite far and just hoped for the best. What do ya do? We did get the chance to walk around the grounds though.

The girls that took this picture were from San Francisco! What are the chances?!

Cody and Harv enjoying the view!

The boys enjoying the audio tour...we only got one so Harv was our tour guide.

Lara and I taking a break...

A little bit hot...a little bit done...

That night we went to dinner. It was VERY important to Cody and Harv that we find a good restaurant with a good view of the t.v. so they could watch the soccer game. They were getting into the true spirit of soccer. I don't think Cody's eyes left the t.v. the whole game!

The next day we spent the day at the pool/beach. It was perfect! Cody and Harv played frisbee on the beach for what seemed like hours and Lara and I laid out and were entertained by people doing water aerobics! Quite funny!

After we had our fill of the sunshine we got dressed and headed to old town Marbella.

It was full of winding streets and cute little shops.

A lot of the houses had flowers growing all over them. So pretty! It felt like the movies!

Me being a dork! : )

We came across an old castle up on the hill.

Stopped for a churro and hot chocolate. So good! The hot chocolate in Spain is so thick! So thick that we couldn't drink it so we shared one hot chocolate and just dipped the churro in. The ladies sitting next to us laughed at us while they drank it like water!

We found a little restaurant on the street to eat at that night. Harv raved about his pasta for the rest of the trip!

The next day we made sure to go to the Picasso museum in Malaga because the museum in Barcelona was closed. Driving in Spain was needless to say a bit...stressful. At one point Cody stopped the car in the middle of a busy street to refocus his thoughts, not minding a load of cars behind us!

We made it!

The Barenz's were excited to be there too!

Inside/outside of the museum. The building and grounds were really pretty.

We liked this street too!

Downtown Malaga...

Once we were done at the museum we had to catch our train to Madrid. We ended up making it to the train station a bit early so we had some time to kill. Cody and Harv discovered a bowling alley so Lara and I hit the shops!

On the train...

Next stop....Madrid!

SPAIN PART 1: Barcelona

2011-06-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went on an amazing trip to Spain! We planned the trip for months so by the time we landed in Barcelona we were excited to put on our adventure pants! We took over 500 pictures so it has been a bit of a task going through each one. So sorry for the picture overload!

We started our trip off in Barcelona. We flew from San Francisco to New York then to Barcelona. Long flights but well worth the wait! The early morning in the airport started off very eventful and quite hilarious. Cody and I knew that Lara and Harv were in for some bad Karma when they lost their nice camera on a previous flight the night before and I noticed Lara had put on her shirt inside that morning. We were in for some funny times in Spain...

Lara and Harv buying their 1st camera of the trip. Little did they know it was not going to be their last!

Lara showing us her inside out shirt...

Lara and I at 7:00 am after arriving in Barcelona after 16 hours of flying. So happy to be there!

Our cute little hotel:

It was small, but nice...And I must add that the shower was amazing!

We had just enough time to drop off our bags before we went on our bike tour. We didn't want to waste any time!

The Barenz on their bikes!

Cruzin through the streets of Barcelona...

The Arch de Triomphe of Spain

The Gaudi Fountains

There was a big riot outside of one of the bull fighting arenas. We ended up not going to a bull fight. We had mixed feelings so we opted out.

Outside of the Sagrada Familia. Also designed by Gaudi, which we found most of the famous architecture in Spain was designed by him. The construction started in 1882 and as you can see it is still under construction...apparently it is supposed to be completed by 2026 but it doesn't sound like it will ever be done.

We ended our first day in Barcelona by going to a tapas bar. Then instead of hitting the clubs we went to bed. We were TIRED!!!

The started the next day off by heading back to the Sagrada Familia so we could go inside. We thought we would grab a quick breakfast before we went in but at 9:30 nothing was open yet! We had heard that they run on a different schedule, but no even Starbucks was open! I think I could get used to that lifestyle...

Cody always happy to do anything!

The inside was AMAZING! Pictures don't do it justice.

This building has a reputation for being weird. And weird it was. It reminded me of the sand/mud castles I used to make on the beach when I was little.

Harv doing his impression of Gaudi...

After the Sagrada we took ourselves on a walking tour of the city. We ended up doing A LOT of walking. Much more then we planned but I guess thats how it goes sometimes when you don't know where you are going!

Wrong country boys...

A cute little street we saw trying to find the Picasso museum. Found out later it was closed...

We went into a Gelato place that had made these chocolates. I thought they were so pretty. It is officially on my list of things to attempt to make.

At lunch at a cafe by the beach.

After doing some more site seeing and shopping we grabbed some dinner. It was super good!

The next morning we started off by going to see a building across the street from our hotel that is now apartments designed by...yep Gaudi.

On the top of the building. It reminded me of something out of a Dr. Suess book.

Afterwards we made reservations for a cooking class. I LOVE to cook so I was really excited!

Me making catalan cream while Lara, Harv, and Cody made tomato soup.

The finished product. It was really yummers.

Our finished paella!

Torchin up the cream!

After we became professional cooks we hit the streets for some more shopping!

Las Ramblas

Lara and I thought the name of this hotel was funny!

We found this market called La Boqueria. It was so crowded and full of everything and anything you can think of.

haha

This is me being annoyed...in 7th grade Spanish class I learned one of my favorite words...biblioteca...and I learned from this sign that it is now called a llibreria. So boring!

Later on we went to "the castle on the hill" which we found out later was not a castle it was a museum. pretty none the less. It had a really pretty view of the city. We snapped some pics.

Cody and Harv either trying to be cool or getting sick of taking pictures...you choose.

We spent our last night out in Barcelona at a soccer game. Bilbao vs Espanyol. The stadium was huge and the fans are crazy! I think the stadium holds something like 80,000 people! It was super awesome!

That's it for Barcelona! Coming up...Malaga/Marbella...

HERMANA JOHNSON

2011-05-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

Off to Utah for Car Car's farewell...

The night before Carly's farewell they had an open house for all Carly's friends and family to come over and hang out.

This is Carly's mission President and his wife. They are scheduled to go on their mission a couple of weeks after Carly.

A few family pics before Carly left....

After a valiant effort we finally snapped one where Chad and Cody are being normal...

Had to get a "crazy" one!

Cody and I had to go home so we didn't get to take Carly to the MTC. But I here are a few pics from that day.

Carly is such a rock star! Look at how excited she was, she didn't even cry! Love you Car Car!

TRIP TO THE BAY

2011-05-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago we had some visitors. Car and Mar came out to play!

Pics by the bridge

Muir Woods

Out to eat

And much more! Our weekend was full of shopping, eating, hanging out, and lots of laughing.

Mar...this is for you....

As for everyone else...don't ask...

hahaha

I COULDN'T HELP IT

2011-03-11T00:04:00.000-08:00

I had to share! Baby Blair I can't help but smile when I look at you. I had to pass along your happiness!

ITS ABOUT DANG TIME...

2011-02-26T18:44:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe what a little blogger slacker I've become. Truthfully blogging has become a bit of a chore however sadly right now it is my only source of a journal. So here I sit trying to compile in my head the many things that have occurred in my/our lives that I would like to blog about. Since my last post we traveled to Utah twice, the first time for Thanksgiving, and the second for Christmas and New Years, I went to one of the happiest places on earth, Cody's sweet sister Carly got her mission call (Fresno CA...yep we will most definitely be visiting!), Cody jumped feet first into our very favorite time of year (busy season!), we celebrated my 27th birthday, I spent 2 weeks in Hawaii, we celebrated a belated Valentines day, and...dun dun dun...we saw NEVER SAY NEVER! hahaha

I didn't take very many pictures of Thanksgiving or Christmas and the ones I have aren't very exciting. Everyones Christmas morning looks pretty much the same right? Plus lets be honest, its February, we barley remember by now.

Some of my family at Macaroni Grill. We got together for lunch, shopping, and a movie. Well sort of.. the guys took off after lunch to play basketball.

Hanging at Codys mom's house...I absolutely love catching up with Grandma Hilda and Grandpa Kent. They always have such great stories. They are still so in love after all these years. Cody and I want to be just like them.

I had to post this picture of my nephew Branson...I have never seen a kid more excited or grateful for a Christmas present. I was so so funny!

We spent New Years with Matt, McCall, Ben, and Lauren. Almost Robb and Heather. They were at the same restaurant but they were there with their friends. We ate at a sushi place in Salt Lake called Ginza. It is so delish! Seriously its a must try if you haven't!

Ringing in the new year! We are such party animals!

Then off to Disney World! I got my little "First Visit" pin. It was great! Disney World really just is one of the happiest places in the world! How many places can you go where you can see a 45 year old man walking around with Mickey ears on and not look completely out of place? Exactly! It just makes you feel like a kid and it made very excited to take my own kids there. Yes Lara, you may be rubbing off on me...

All of us meeting the cast of the Star Wars show.

This picture makes me laugh out loud when I see it. Harv took this while on Thunder Mountain. I guess I was having fun! I was laughing really hard. Like the filling in my mounth? Hahaha

This is how this restaurant showed their dessert menu. Apparently I was fascinated!

We got some awesome looks from people. It was a very late night so that helped make it a little funnier

Cody couldn't make it this time so this is me copying Harv and Lara, wishing Cody was there.

Cody took me to an Asian restaurant called Tamarine for my Birthday. Saying it was good would be a big understatement!

My sweet sister-in-law McCall sent me this flower for my Birthday. She is so thoughtful!

The day after my Birthday I went to Hawaii again to help out. It was fun having Allison to hang out with this year.

We met this little piece of work at a luau. He was flexing his stomach really hard!

Us trying to take pictures of ourselves.

Us before we perfected it. The camera kept falling over.

Us taking pictures with our chocolate lips. Sweet Barb and Steve got us presents for Valentines Day. We woke up to a knock on the door and gift bags full of surprises. She never disappoints!!

Us being dorky hanging by the pool!

Me hangin with the girls by the pool. I love them so much! (don't mind the awesome guy in the back ground)

Stating the obvious!

And last but not least...last night we saw the Justin Bieber movie! I am not ashamed to say that I love him! I liked him before but now I really really like him! Like I said...not ashamed!

This picture cracks me up! Words just can't express...

Me and Lara in our 3D's

No pics of Harv. Sorry Harvy. Somehow I just didnt snap any this time!

So there you have it! We are up to date! Sorry if you were bored to tears!

HALLOWEEN 2010

2010-11-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

I love Halloween, really I pretty much love all holidays. But I love Halloween because I love to dress up and see what other people dress up as too. This year we decided to be the king and queen of hearts and we got to hang out with Tink, Peter Pan, some hippies, harry potter, fear the beard, an indian princess, a pink lady and a few more. Everyones costumes were so cute!

Aren't they good sports?!

Our little trick or treater buddies!

This years pumpkins...

Later on that night we went to the Winchester Mystery House. Picture a huge haunted mansion, at night with nothing but flashlights! So very creepy. It was awesome!

Us outside the house...meet our new friends Scott and Carly.

See I told you very creepy...

Also Cody and I are on the activities committee in our ward. We were assigned to make the pin the lips on the witch game. Yay!

That is where my lips ended up. Guess I didn't do as well as I should have considering that it was my witch and lips! (not sure where Cody's went, but I'm pretty sure he did better than me!)

ALWAYS PLAYIN CATCH UP

2010-10-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

This past month has been spent doing quite a lot. We've hosted some visitors, gone to a 49ers game and a Giants game; ate some more yummy crab; made a quick visit to Utah where we finally got to meet my new niece Blair and surprise our families with our visit; went to San Diego for a wedding (while there we hit Lego Land and Sea World); got beach cruisers; Cody went to the Chicago Bears game; Barb and I did a flash mob; and I started a bunco group. This last weekend was the first weekend in a while that I devoted my whole Saturday to my TO DO list and oh it felt good. My laundry basket was ridiculously full. And if you know me then you know thats enough to make me go insane. And like I have said in previous posts, blogging is often on my TO DO list so here I sit to check yet another thing off.

Here are some pics from our month...

My dad and Chad came out to visit us. We invited them to come see us and go to the 49ers game.

Watching the BYU game...they got killed...weird.

Later on we went up to the city. Chad had never been there before so we showed him around.

That night we went to a Giants game. We have lived here for over 2 years now and I still haven't seen a ball get hit into the bay!

Then the next day we went to the 49ers/Saints game. Who dat be gonna beat dem saints? Ya we lost...I felt bad when Reggie hurt his leg. Like I'm somehow connected to him through Keeping up with the Kardashians?

We got a sweet hook up through Steve and Barb. We drove to the game with a bunch of people and watched the game in a suite. I had never been to a pro football game before. That is definitely the way to do it!

Harv and his buddies...yep matching shirts. Gotta love it!

After the game we went down on the field for a while during Steve's after show.

Some of you might know that I have been wanting a beach cruiser for a long time now. A couple of weeks ago my little dream came true. Belated birthday presents for me and Cody (and Lara and Harv and Allison).

Then we made a quick trip to Utah. We have been wanting to find a time to surprise our families and show up in Utah so we finally did it. It was so fun to see their reactions. First, we went to Codys friend Jordan Brown's wedding, then we got to surprise Codys family. Then the next day we surprised my family. It was pretty funny to see their confused faces. But I didn't really take many pictures this trip...

Baby Blair...ahhh...I could just eat her up!

Allison got married on October 16 down in San Diego so we decided to head down with the Youngs. Luckily they talked us into flying down because we were considering driving which looking back that would have made for a very long weekend. Lego Land+Sea World+Allisons wedding=Good weekend.

Waiting for Allison and Rustin to come out of the temple.

Later on we went to the reception where they had dinner and dancing. Allison and I stopped our dancing to take a quick pic. The wedding was so great and it was so much fun.

I am so happy we got to go!

And last but least...my flash mob. Barb and I went down to San Diego a few weekends ago to participate in a flash mob. She actually got the invite from her brother and she invited me to do it too because she knew how much fun it would be. It really was so awesome. They are doing one in San Francisco soon. Cant wait to sign up!

Click here to see the video...flashmob...don't judge. I probably should have practiced a bit more.

CANDIED SUSHI

2010-09-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

This is what Barb and I did at work the other day. I thought it was worth sharing...

3 YEARS AGO

2010-09-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

Cody and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple...

I love thinking back to that amazing day. I try to keep the throwing up on the temple grounds out of my thoughts, but as you can imagine it's pretty hard. Hahaha I can laugh about it now but 3 years ago...not so funny. Besides that, the day was amazing. I could not have asked for anything better.

Happy Anniversary Cody! I love you more than ever!

WHATS BEEN GOING ON...

2010-09-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

August was busy. But thats the way we like it! The month started off with a new addition to the family. Meet Blair Kelly Oviatt. Isn't she precious? We haven't met her yet and it is killing me being away from that little round head and tiny little lips. I am counting down the days!

My cute brother ben with Blair. She melts my heart!

One of Cody's best buddies came to visit from Southern California for Cody's birthday. We had a blast! We went up to San Fran and rode bikes across the Golden Gate. Here are some pics from our weekend.

I woke up early to make Cody's favorite, confetti cake. He is easily pleased.

I love this guy! Can you believe he is single? Interested?

I have his info! Haha sorry Chase!

They put their spitting contest on hold for another pic.

Just enjoying the view! Me and them...hahaha

Later that night we went to dinner and we could not find parking ANYWHERE! This is where we ended up. No lie Cody parallel parked this one without hitting either car! We had an audience. Don't worry there was plenty of room for both cars to get out. The bug was on the end and the Acura had plenty of room behind it. We were laughing so hard!

Also Mar and Dave came to visit. It is always so fun to have them in town. Cody loves having them here but he jokingly complains that having them in town is bad on our budget. What can I say Mar has good taste! We saw Teatro Zinzanni. So fun but so weird. There was a guy that regurgitated ping pong balls....like I said weird but it is so entertaining!

Us at the show...Bret, Cindy, Dave, Mar, me, and Code

We ended their stay with some dang good breakfast at Joanies Cafe and then hung out in Palo alto for a bit. We might have stopped by the mall again...

Dave and Cody entertaining themselves while Mar and I did some shopping.

Thanks again guys for coming out to visit!

SUMMER IS FLYIN BY...

2010-07-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since my last post. I have wanted to update but for some reason my computer wouldn't upload my pictures. So I just kept trying and one day it decided to work weird??? I have to say though, I hate the feeling of not having my blog updated. How dorky am I? Sometimes I even write it on my weekly to do list....

Since my last post we spent a week in Lake Powell with the Oviatt fam, we spent another 10 days after that in Utah for the 4th of July etc, gone to a couple of concerts, gone surfing, flew kites in the city, I spoke in church....so glad thats over..., and managed to work too. Speaking of work...Cody has been working so much these last couple of weeks. Hopefully things slow down for him soon. I would like my husband back...

On another note, here are some pictures from our last few weeks of life... Not a lot from Lake Powell, my camera was lost for the majority of the trip.

We get to see Cody doing a lot of this in Lake Powell

Same Same

My brothers buried each other to see if they could break free by themselves...they couldn't.

My dado hangin in the boat

Looking a bit scary after being on the lake for a week.

Cody was "trying" to grow a beard.

After we got back we spent some time with Cody's family. This is us golfing up in Park City.

Davey loves it when I take his picture...can you tell?

We spent the 4th of July with my family at Oakridge. During the day the girls and kids swam while the guys golfed.

Me and Madi trying to get warm

Classic goggles smashing the face pic. He is too cute!

Zack, Madi, Gabe, and Jed resting after the money diving contest

Little Halle bug eating a snow cone. She wanted whatever flavor Madi had...

That night we had a big dinner and watched the fireworks. This is my families tradition but we usually don't get home to go. This year we got lucky!

Then of course after dinner the kidos had to get their faces painted. It was a hit!

My cute Mom and Dad

We managed to squeeze in a little birthday party for Halle before we had to leave. I was so happy we could make it. McCall threw her a pinkalicious party. It was so so cute!

Halle blowing out her candles.

Looks like Olivia and Gracie were trying hard to hold back helping.

The last few weekends we have been playing catch up with Harv and Lara. Even though we were all in Utah at the same time we didn't really see much of them. We have gone to two concerts since we've been back. The Beach boys and The Gypsy Kings. So fun!

Lara is always very happy to pose for pictures!

Then last weekend we went up to the city to check off some things from Harvs TO DO list. We went to breakfast at a famous place called Mama's where we stood in line for an hour and a half for breakfast. I gave it an A+ it was so so good! Then we went to Crissy field and flew kites.

Does it surprise you Lara got a princess kite?

Fixing my $3.00 kite. I can't believe it broke!

That is it! Sorry if I bored you to tears!

CINDERELLA???

2010-06-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had the got to meet Cinderella in real life!

Does anyone know who she is???

YEP! Thats my friend Lara!

She was asked to come to a birthday party for my bosses daughter so of course I couldn't let the opportunity pass without getting a picture with her! You know its not every day you have a friend who plays a disney character on the side! Haha I love it!!!

MEMORIAL DAY

2010-06-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

Cody and I and Harv and Lara had Monday off for Memorial Day so we decided last minute on Friday night to do something fun so we threw clothes into bags and drove to LA!

I swear since the first time we hung out with Harv and Lara they have been trying to figure out a time we can go to Disney Land. So of course we had to fit that into our weekend and can I just say I have never met two people who love Disney Land more then those two!

Also Cody and I have been wanting to get down to Southern California anyway to see Chase one of our good friends who is going to school at USC. It was fun to catch up!

So here are some pictures from our very spur of the moment vaca to Southern California!

The beach!

A pic of the boys after they got done body surfing!

Cody ALWAYS last out of the ocean. He loves it...obviously!

After the beach we went to dinner at the Crab Cooker in Newport. So yummy!

The standard 1st pic of the day!

Toon Town! I hadn't been there in forever so they humored me.

I know I'm a dork!

We had to meet Mickey!

Me and La La!

"Bob the Builder?" Nope "Handy Manny" and he was a bit upset when we got it wrong. Oops! So Cody had to get his picture with him to remember the funny moment!

There was some old school Michael Jackson show playing so we decided to go see it. Lets just say the makers were not thinking straight when they made this movie! Hilarious!

Cody being "Woody"...or trying to???

The Cody and Harv thought that one time wasn't enough so they went again.

They look like 5 year olds!

Yep, we're lame!

Every time Cody and I go on Pirates of the Caribbean we want to eat at the restaurant that you pass at the very beginning of the ride, the Blue Bayou. So we made it happen this time and it did not disappoint, it was pretty dang good.

Anyway, there's our weekend! Thanks Harvey and La La you guys are the best!

HAWAII

2010-05-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

We spent last week in Hawaii with Cody's family. We hung out at the pool, played at the beach, went golfing, did some shopping (of course), played many late night card games, and we ate and ate and ate! It was such a blast!

Here are some pics from our fun week!

The fam on our snorkel trip around Lanai'i. It was amazing! We saw a lot of pretty fish and about 30 spinner dolphins decided to swim with our boat!

A ship wreck on our snorkel trip!

Dinner at a pizza joint in down town Lahaina.

Eatin din at the Hula Grill. Amazing fish tacos!

One of the days we went on a little hike up to a place called Twin Falls. There were waterfalls, cliff jumping, and a rope swing! There was a fruit stand by the entrance, they sold fresh pineapple and fresh sugar cane juice.

We went to a Luau called the Feast at Le Le. It was really fun. The entertainment was awesome and they served us food from each of the Hawaiian islands. I would definitely do this one again!

Just the girls!

Cody and his siblings, Chad and Carly.

Mar and Dave!

Our new family pic!

Code just by himself. He just looked so cute I couldn't resist!

This trip was so dang fun and so hard to come home from! Thanks Mar and Davey for makin it happen! You guys are awesome, thank you so much!!! Again next year???

RECENTLY

2010-04-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

Matt and McCall had baby #2! We welcomed baby Corry into the Oviatt family the end of March. I guess I shouldn't say "we" it was more like "they" welcomed her because we still haven't met her. Well, we welcomed her from a distance. But we are so excited to meet her when we go home for Lake Powell. It has been way too long since we've seen the fam. And I hate being away and missing out on things.

How precious is that little face?!

Cody's mom and sister came into town a few weekends ago to celebrate Carly's birthday. She wanted to come out and see us for her birthday present. Isn't she sweet? Because Carly got so hooked up for her birthday we all won. We love when people come visit us! Here are a few pics from our weekend.

Saw Wicked for the 3rd time! Love it!

A couple of weekends ago we went back to the city with Lara and Harv. We started the day off hanging out playing football and frisbee in the Golden Gate park. Little did we know it was like "San Frans-don't-get-arrested-for-smoking-weed-day." We saw tons of people smoking and rockin out to their bongos. It was hilarious. Needless to say the rest of the day we spent giggling and eating a lot. Haha just kidding mom! Then we went to visit the "Full House" house. I have been wanting to go there for a while now. It was a bit of a let down though. They painted the red door black. Whatever I guess. I have also been wanting to eat at a really good crab restaurant and we found one down by the warf. I was so excited and so full!

Us with Lara and Harv at our crab feast! Mmmmm!

Somewhere in there we squeezed in a date night at the Jazz/Warriors game. Cody got tickets from a guy at work that couldn't make it. It was so much fun. Thanks Code!

EUROPE PART 2:PARIS

2010-04-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

Lets just start this off with a bang! The best picture of Cody and I...sleeping on the Chunnel. The train that takes you from London to Pari! Can I just say I LOVE PARIS! Don't get me wrong though. I absolutely loved London but there is a difference that is hard to explain. 1st of all Paris was warmer, and that always gets points in my book. It was obviously more then that though. The city is just so amazing. Breathtaking at some points. Paris is just like you see it in the movies, the small cafes on the corners, the creperies, the amazing shopping, etc. We just loved it!

We had to wake up early.

Some of you know Cody does not do well with early mornings!

Harv and Lara surprisingly awake!

We were so excited to be in Paris we didn't waist any time. We headed straight to the Opera Ganier. This is the place that inspired the Phantom of the Opera. You know the huge chandelier that comes down into the audience at the beginning of the play? The real one is here. This place was really pretty amazing though. They talked about how back in the day when people would come here to see the plays they would come 3 or 4 times a week dressed to the 9's with there huge dresses and jewelry that was so expensive that they kept it in a safe around the corner from the opera house. Pretty cool!

In front of the Opera house.

Mascarade! The stairs that were mimicked in the play.

I am a dork!

Later that night we headed to the Arc de Triomphe where we climbed 248 stairs to the top. I didn't realize how big this was. I always heard that things in Paris were a lot smaller then you would think.

The view of the Eiffel Tower was amazing! Our first real look at it. I have been wanting a picture of Eiffel Tower in my house for a long time now but thought I needed to actually see it before I got one and even better taking my own picture of my own. So needless to say I went nuts.

Here is just one of the many!

We started the next day off with the Louvre. Where we found that you don't pronounce it "Loove" its Loove ray" Weird. Good to know I guess. I will probably continue to call it what I was calling it before. I can't do the fancy throaty R's that they do anyway.

In front of the Pyramid.

This is actually where you enter. You go under ground and then connect with the surrounding buildings. Apparently they just built this part a few years ago and it was a big controversy because it obviously doesn't fit the rest of the architecture. The four of us took a vote. Harv and Lara liked it. Cody and I did not. It just didn't fit.

Some of the paintings are huge!

Saw the Mona Lisa. You can't even get close to it. We were as close as we could get and it is protected by glass. It was cool to see it in person though!

After the Louvre we walked down the street to the Musee d'Orsay. We couldn't take pictures inside but we saw paintings from Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, and Renior. We saw Van Goghs self portrait. I starred at it for a good 10 minutes. So much better in person then in books. It really blew my mind.

After the Musee we grabbed a cab down to the Notre Dame. We got there just a few minutes before it closed so we couldn't go to the top.

The next day we headed to the Palace of Versailles. I still can't believe how huge this palace was. I guess its called a palace for a reason.

In front of the chapel inside the palace.

The Hall of Mirrors.

After Versailles we sent to a place called Montmartre where we walked around at some shops and went to the Sacre Coeur.

Harv and Lara trying to look like Parisains!

Then it was time to head to the Moulin Rouge! Don't worry we didn't see a show but some of the peeps in our group wanted to. I won't name names. I was hoping to run into Ewan McGregor or Nicole Kidman. Didn't happen. Hmmm.

That night we went on a dinner cruise on the Siene river. Fun, but the food was not very good.

Then since we were right by the Eiffel Tower we thought we would go check it out. Then it started to rain. Then then next thing I know I am hiking to up about a million stairs in 3 1/2 inch heels. What? Not sure how that happened. If I would have known I would have reconsidered my choice of shoes.

Us walking down. Excited that we made it!

My heels. Yikes!

Lookin a bit beat up from the rain and the hike!

The last day we left open to hang out and to do some shopping.

Us in front of our flat.

We ate about a million crepes a day but this is the only picture we got of them.

Lara and her nutella and banana crepe!

We wanted to get some pictures of the Eiffel tower in the day time. So we went back and a photo shoot. We are dorks! That is all I can say!

Not a normal picture for us. But hey we were in the city of love!

Not sure waht we are doing...

Like I said...dorks!

Our last night in the Paris. We were not ready to go home.

Thanks Paris! Hopefully we'll make it back someday. We enjoyed your beauty, your history, your shopping, and above all...your pastries!

EUROPE PART 1:LONDON

2010-03-25T22:40:00.000-07:00

We just got home from the trip of a lifetime! We had the pleasure of going with our buddies Lara and Harv. This trip was very much anticipated and it did not fail to provide a lot of laughter and very fun times! I feel like this post should have a disclaimer because there will be A LOT OF PICTURES! I decided to break it down into 2 posts it would be way too long because I eliminated from 830 pictures! Yes thats right 830!!! So here I go!

We left for adventure to Europe on March 12. We boarded our plane and 10 hours later we landed in London, England feeling surprisingly refreshed. The chairs on British Airways are nice! I swear as soon as we hit the ground I did not stop talking with an English accent until the trip was over. I'm sure it was much more fun for me than it was for those around me.

Excitedly sitting at the airport getting ready to take off!

Cody was so excited he couldn't even hold onto his water bottle!

They couldn't hold it in either!

This may have inspired the accent. We quoted this sign for the duration of the trip!

After we got there we went straight to our flat. Yes, we stayed in a flat. And it had the most incredible view of The Tower Bridge.

We had to walk across this bridge almost everyday and I never got sick of it. So pretty!

The street out in front of our flat.

We pretty much fit as many things into our days as possible without taking the fun out of it. And of course we slept in a little bit because if I have learned two things about the four of us it's that we are much better off when we are not tired or hungry.

The British Museum.

Us just being us!

I don't think this was actually supposed to be part of the art.

But we apparently thought it should be.

Lunch in China town looking like American tourists.

We went on a Jack the Ripper tour. Very interesting, very creepy, and very cool. Lara couldn't sleep for days. I'm not lying...days! Sorry no pics!

The Big Ben.

Did you know that the Big Ben is actually the bell inside the clock tower.

So technically this picture doesn't even show The Big Ben.

I thought that was interesting!

Buckingham Palace

(the queen was inside but didn't want to come hang out with us)

The Tower of London.

I wish they would let you take pictures of the crown jewels.

FYI there is a 3,000 karat diamond in there!!!

Us with a "beefeater"

Westminster Abbey

The Globe Theater

Les Miserables. Love it! I forget how amazing the music is.

Had to get this!

Shopping at Harrods! They know how to make me happy!

Eating Gelato. Looks like I ordered off the kid menu!

Yep Platform 9 3/4!!! I like Harry Potter but I learned on this trip that Lara likes it on a whole new level! We thought it would be hard to find so Harv stopped to ask. He said, "I have a weird question to ask you" before he could finish his sentence the guy laughed and pointed us in the right direction. Pretty funny. I had no idea it was such a tourist spot!

Not sure if they know what this means but they had fun anyway.

Thanks London for being so much fun and to the ridiculously nice and hilarious cab drivers who provided us with a lot of laughs! The Paris post will be on its way shortly!

FEBRUARY FLEW BY!

2010-03-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I am just now posting about February and March is almost over! Needless to say these last couple of months have been busy! We started the month off with the Superbowl. And yes Cody did attend! He had the time of his life! He took a bunch of videos on our flip and half the time I couldn't hear anything else but Cody's happy giggles. If you haven't heard his laugh you are missing out! Anyway here are a couple of pics from his weekend. There are many more but this is all I can get my hands on for now.

Cody and Harv just lovin life!

Cody liked the confetti almost as much as the game!

Oh ya and don't mind they met Kenny Chesney!

Just after Cody got home we celebrated my birthday by going out on a romanical date to Scotts Seafood where I ate some very delicious crab. This doesn't happen very often because I am married to someone who doesn't really do much seafood. I guess I can forgive???

A few days after my birthday I took off to Hawaii for work. Let me just say it would be nice to work in Hawaii all year round. I could get used to that!!!

It wouldn't be too shabby looking at this everyday...

HAPPINESS

2010-01-28T22:22:00.000-08:00

When I sat down to write this post I had the intention of venting about my bad week but as I thought about all of the things that happened to me I realized something...

I have way too many things to be happy about then to waste my time on the negative things. My problems are so small compared to so many people that are struggling in our world. Granted I have days where I get out of the car and step into huge puddles of water, or days that I spend searching the house for whatever is causing that horrible smell only to realize we have a dead squirrel in our fireplace...YAY, or wanting to pull out my hair because of other things that stress me out, but I realized I have way too many things to be happy about and too many other things that bring me true happiness then to waste my time dwelling on things that really don't matter and I no longer feel the need to complain. To instead be grateful for what I have. An amazing family, a great job, a car to drive home in at night, a house to come home to, and a wonderful husband who knows me, who really knows me and that makes me happier then I ever thought I could be.

I SEE LONDON I SEE FRANCE...

2010-01-21T19:42:00.000-08:00

AND I WILL IN MARCH OF 2010!

I felt this awesome news deserved its own post!

My sweet husband SURPRISED me on Christmas with the trip of a lifetime to Europe!

Can you believe it?

So I guess that means my next venture is to learn French!

Can you say Rosetta Stone???

DON'T WORRY I DIDN'T GIVE UP!

2010-01-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

Do you ever go a while without posting and then all of the sudden so much time has gone by and the thought of posting sounds completely overwhelming? Well, that is about where I am. So I am just going to do one giant catch up post then I will do better because I have too many fun things coming up to put it off.

We went home to Utah for Christmas. I absolutely love going home obviously to see our families and friends but also because it is our home and it feels good to be home. We were there for about 10 days. And it was 10 days of bliss! We got to see everyone we hoped for. And Christmas Day was amazing! We are so lucky to have such great families. We got WAY WAY too spoiled! Here's a recap of our trip!

Ski day at Snow Basin with Harv and Lara...

Skeet shooting with Cody's dad...

We are so hard core! hahaha

Camerons baby blessing...

Me and baby Cameron...

Me wrestling with Drake in my church clothes...

Don't mind the socks, I had boots on...

New Years eve with my brothers Matt and Ben and my sister-in-law McCall. (Lauren was still out of town.) The best part of the night was when McCall popped open the Martinellies and realized they didn't have champagne glasses so we drank out of clear plastic cups. It was funny when we realized it looked like beer. So of course I had to take a few pics of pregnant McCall drinking her "beer"

Me just throwing back hahaha!

AND no pictures from Christmas Day or of Cody's moms festivities!!!! What is wrong with me? The day is always so busy for us running from place to place. We opened presents on Christmas morning with Cody's mom and then she made her famous breakfast. Then we headed to my parents to do Christmas "morning" with my fam and then we headed out to Cody's dads that night. Always fun but it is A LOT of driving. But don't worry its worth it!

OUR CUTE NIECES AND NEPHEWS

2009-12-05T18:37:00.000-08:00

My family got together last Sunday and took this picture of all of our nieces and nephews. We couldn't be there so I wanted to post about it. We miss them so much!

THANKSGIVING FESTIVITIES!

2009-12-01T09:42:00.000-08:00

We just got back from our Thanksgiving vacation to Utah. I must say Cody and I are getting extremely good at jam packing 50 things into one weekend. We started off our week by driving to Utah! We swore we would never do it again after we drove the big huge Penske truck but when you are getting paid to do the drive it makes it better. Our intention was to make the trip in one day but we got on the road later then planned so we decided to get a hotel and finish the drive the following day. So where did we stay??? Yep! Wendover baby! ha ha

The next day we met my family in SLC for some lunch and a little shopping. That is where I got to meet my nephew baby Cameron for the first time! Only 8 days old! Thanks Kate for bringing him!

Then later that night we headed down to St. George with Cody's fam for the rest of the week. St. George is always so fun because it is so relaxing. We saw 2 movies,

THIS

AND

THIS,

both SO GOOD

and went shopping, played games, went to dinner, etc.

And this is Cody's cute family! Mar wanted some more pics for their house so we took a few! This is just one of the many!

Thanks everyone for such a fun trip home!

NEW MOON TIMES TWO!

2009-11-22T10:44:00.001-08:00

Yes, that is right I saw it twice in less then 24 hours! haha Obsessed much? Well, I did read all 4 books in about 2 weeks...so maybe I am. Not in a crazy way though, I don't think. No pushing or getting into arguments with people in line, etc. I did wear an Edward shirt though. Maybe I am more obsessed than I thought I was??? I really liked the movie, I thought they portrayed the book so well and all of the things that bugged me in the first movie were better in the second.

These pics are from the midnight showing. We didn't take anymore the next day, we were lucky to even get our husbands to come. I didn't want to push my luck and ask for pictures too.

Lindsey, me, and Lara at dinner before the show,

we ate WAY too much!

I think its because we knew we were going to be up for a

while so we didn't want to get hungry again....he he

Us standing in line, cold, but not Utah cold.

And we were fully entertained by a lady in front of us

chowing down on a burrito.

Had to get a picture of Lara and I in our Edward shirts!

Us waiting FOREVER for the movie to start.

We had to entertain somehow!

What better then trying to bite each others necks!

Sorry Lara you have no face.

Us after Diet Coke and Candy!

We didn't even know we were doing the same face!

We laughed way too hard after we found out.

Anyone else as crazy as us? I wanna know what you thought of the show too!

NEW BABY

2009-11-22T09:50:00.000-08:00

My sister Kate had a new addition to her family on Tuesday, Cameron Jed. Since I'm not there I haven't seen him yet but this picture shows how sweet his little 7 pounds are. Can't wait to see him! Congrats Kate and Jim!

Thanks Lauren for the cute picture!

THE WORLD SHOULD KNOW...

2009-11-08T20:30:00.000-08:00

That this is the WORST MOVIE EVER!

Here are some reasons...

SLOW

WEIRD

LONG

NO POINT

BORING

AND

HAD TERRIBLE ACTING

(I could go on but I won't)

The sad thing is that I really wanted to like this movie but the longer I sat there the worse it got. After all said and a small part of you still wants to see this show then consider saving yourself 2 hours of your life, money, and your sanity and watch the movie trailer. It shows all of the parts that are remotely worth seeing. And if you see it anyway and hate it, don't say I didn't warn you.

(for the record, i don't usually feel so strongly about things but I simply had to express myself)

HALLOWEEN FUN

2009-11-01T17:01:00.001-08:00

I pretty much love all holidays but I really really love HALLOWEEN! Every year I rack my brain trying to come up with a costume idea for me and Cody (he's not much help considering he doesn't get quite as excited as I do) this year I decided that we were going to go as BERT AND ERNIE! However I decided just 4 days before Halloween. Some of you are saying "Oh 4 days is enough time" but not so much if you are making your own costume. Yep, me, make the costumes...but I am proud to say I did it! Finished about 2 seconds before we walked out the door. They turned out great in my opinion but our actual outfits could have used a little more help. Maybe next year???

The party that we went to turned out to be tons of fun and we won best costume! I was so excited!

I love any holiday that you can somehow celebrate for a couple of days, not just on the actual day. This year I got lucky! Our party ended up being on Friday night so we had all of Halloween day to celebrate some more. So during the day we went to our friends Tim and Brittny to carve pumpkins and later that night we passed out candy. Can I just add that Cody had more fun answering the door and trying to scare the kids then they did going trick or treating. He is still such a kid!

Me, Cody, Harv, Lara, Brittny, Tim, and Lion, I mean Cason

Us with our pumpkins...I set the automatic timer. Hence the reason why I look like such a dork, my pumpkin weighed like 100 pounds.

Me and Cody's up close

We all had a contest to see who could carve the best pumpkin but we had to make it fair so they had the trick or treaters be the judges. I still don't know who won. But it was fun to have a little competition.

EATIN GOOD FROM TEXAS!

2009-11-01T16:51:00.000-08:00

One day Lindsey and I were out and about and we discovered a TEXAS ROADHOUSE! Our mouths started watering when we thought of the rolls and the cinnamon butter so the next thing we knew we had dragged Cody and James out for a lovely dinner of steaks and ribs!!! Mmmm!

Our tribute to our rolls!

I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE

2009-11-01T16:26:00.000-08:00

Someone special in my life has been going through some really hard times and I haven't really known the best way to help. Rather than calling every day and forcing her into talking to me (even though I know she wants to she is just getting burned out of talking about it all the time) I decided to go to the temple for her. I haven't had to opportunity to go to the Oakland temple yet so it was the perfect opportunity. It ended up being one of the best experiences of my life. I have never been to the temple alone but after my experience I plan on it more often.

The temple sits up high on a mountain (they call it a mountain, I would say more like a big hill) and it looks over the whole bay area. It is so pretty I love living here!

BLUE ANGELS

2009-11-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

I need to do a few catch up posts so get ready to be entertained. (or bored)

A few weeks ago the BLUE ANGELS came to San Francisco so Cody and I and our friends Harv and Lara decided to make a day of it. We rode to Cal into the city then we spent the day on our bikes riding around. It ended up being so fun and we got around much faster then any car because there were so many people in the city that day. Then we found an awesome place right next to the water to watch the show.

Looking a bit tired after a long day.

Thanks guys for a fun day!

REMODELING???

2009-10-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

As most of you know we moved into a new place a little over a month ago. The owners remodeled it about 4 years ago but they decided not to do the bathroom. Of course we saw it realized it was older, which was fine and didn't really think much about it but I realized I wanted to do something the day I tried to clean it. I quickly saw that the floor wasn't going to get sparkly clean like I had hoped. Most of you reading know me and know what a freak I am about cleanliness so I got the crazy idea to re-due the floor. My cousin told me about these plastic 12x12 floor pieces that are literally like giant stickers that you can just stick over the existing floor. I thought PERFECT because I didn't want to do a huge renovation (not that I know how) and the pieces are only $1.09 each! FAB! I went to Home Depot bought supplies and a day and a half later NEW FLOOR! Here are some pics!!!

BEFORE...

AFTER!.!.!

And...a new toilet seat! Why am I so excited?

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

2009-09-30T09:57:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I forgot to post this! A few weeks ago Cody got the opportunity to go to a Monday night football game. But not only did he get to go, he got to hang out on the field. He had so much fun! Here are a few pics from his night!

Cody and his buddies

He was so excited he took a picture with the sideline dude!

Up to bat at home plate! Ha ha

Look at those tight pants!

Maybe next time I'll get to go too???

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!

2009-09-30T09:23:00.001-07:00

We just had THE BUSIEST weekend of our lives!!! Luckily we knew it was going to be busy so we were prepared. It all started last Wednesday. Cody and I both worked until the last minute possible then ran home with our ride to the airport waiting for us at our house. Then we jumped on the plane and arrived in SLC at 10:25 PM. Cody's family picked us up and we went back to their place and went to bed. HA HA just kidding...we always stay up and talk until to the wee hours of the morning when we stay there. We love it!

I think we ended up hitting the sack at about 2:00 AM. Before bed I set my alarm for 6:20 AM because I had to be at my hair appointment at 7:30 AM. The next morning I woke up to a phone call from my sister at 7:22! Luckily the guy that does my hair rocks and knew I was coming from out of state and got me in at 8:30. After that I went to my sister Sara's house to practice my song I was singing at Chad and Syds wedding dinner. (BTW hadn't practiced AT ALL) Where my two year old nephew proceeded to tell me to "Go ower der" (meaning go over there) when I said hi to him. hmmm, he doesn't remember me and I have to be honest it ripped my heart out. I wish I could see them often enough so that wouldn't happen.

From Sara's I ran back to get ready for the temple. Syd went through the temple for the first time the day before they got married. :) Then we ran over to the wedding dinner that Cody's mom/parents did for them. It was so so fun and the decorations and flowers were amazing!

The next day we woke up and went to the SLC temple to see Chad and Syd tie the knot. It was so awesome. They seem so happy together. And that night we drove up to Heber for the reception. Here are some pictures from the wedding. I'm afraid most of them are post dancing. We might look a little beat up.

Me and Code

Me, Carly, and Lauren being silly

Isn't Syd gorgeous!

He he he, cutting the cake!

After their first dance...

The next morning we woke up and went to my niece Madi's baptism, she could not be cuter! After that we got some hang out time with my family for a while.

Madison, she is so CUTE!

Matt, my dad, Jim, Ben, Cody, Tyler, and my grandpa. (The only one missing is my brother Robb)

Heather, McCall, Me, Lauren, Kate, Amberly, my Mom, my Grandma, and Sara

Then later that night we went to one of my good friend Carson Niederhauser's wedding receptions. Then after that we went to my brother Matt and sister-in-law McCall's to hang out and play games.

Me and Jenellie and Carson's wedding with me lookin a little tired. I love baby Brylee's chubby cheekies!

The next day we woke up hung out for a while with Cody's fam and went to lunch with my parents and Sara and her kids and then they took us to the airport. What a crazy busy yet way fun weekend!

WOW!!! Bonus point for you if you read this whole thing without falling asleep!

CAN YOU SAY UPDATE?

2009-09-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

We Finally have internet again and I am so happy because I felt such a disconnect with the world and now I can get caught up on my blogging! It's so weird how you miss the conveniences in life when you don't have them anymore.

A few things have happened since I last posted. Lets see...we've moved...again (for the 3rd time in less then a year) we celebrated our 2 year anniversary on August 24, I started a new job, and one of my BFF moved out here, I'm sure there are more but that is all I can think of at the moment.

Remember how in July we went to Newport with Cody's family? After the trip was over we decided to stay over an extra night at a hotel in downtown Newport and count that as our anniversary celebration. So when the day came we knew we weren't going to do a lot, just go out to dinner and hang out. Then we found out that the circus was in town! We have both always wanted to go to the circus so thats what we ended up doing. (kind of funny thing to do for an anniversary but hey it was only in town that weekend) We have always thought it was funny that neither one of us had ever been to the circus but after going we figured out why...IT IS THE LAMEST THING EVER!!! I know we probably should have waited until we had kids to appreciate it but now we both swear we will never go again. HA HA So sorry future kids! So we bailed out and went to Cheesecake Factory for a little dinner and that made us both feel better.

My new job...is the BEST! I am loving everything about it so far. I'll keep you posted on any updates.

Our new house...is GREAT! There is a reason why I didn't take any pictures of us moving...I didn't want to remember it! :) However after all said and done I can easily say I am happy for numerous reasons, having a dishwasher, a normal sized fridge, and a washer and dryer to name a few. However having a bigger place = having more to clean. I forgot about that...

And lastly it is the most fun having Lindsey and James out here. We are so excited to have adventures with them. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about them shortly.

Here is a pic of us at cheesecake AFTER eating our fabulous dinner. GREAT end to a funny night!

CHANGES!

2009-08-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

You know how in my last post I wrote about how my friend Lindsey came out to see us but that she had an ulterior motive??? Ok, well I did. So here is why. I got an opportunity to change jobs! It was very unexpected and I am SO excited. I have loved my job but have been wanting/needing a change. I have only been working as a nanny out here for about a year now and honestly planned on doing it for a while but then something came up and I could not pass it up. So why this pertains to Lindsey...she just got hired to take my current job! Crazy eh? She has known what I have been doing because I talk to her all the time. So when I told her I was changing jobs she told me she would be interested in talking to the people I work for. So I gave my notice on a Friday, she flew out and interviewed on Saturday, got a job offer on Sunday and decided that they were going to take it on Wednesday. So guess what that means? Well, a lot actually, we've got some new buddies to kick it with, we are good at schmoozing, AND we are moving AGAIN! I am SO EXCITED! Yay for Lindsey and James for being so spontaneous!!! Love you guys and see you soon!!!

CODY BIRTHDAY PLUS MORE VISITORS!

2009-08-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

I unexpectedly got the week off of work last week and as soon as I found out I called my parents and they booked flights to come out and see us. It worked out perfectly because we have been trying to find a good time for them to come out for a few months now...so yay! And it just so happens that they came out the same week of Cody's birthday so we partied all week! My mom flew out on Wednesday morning and my dad flew out on Thursday night. My mom and I spend the first couple of days shopping and hanging out and then when my dad got in and Cody got time off work the shopping came to a halt. So here are some pics from our fun week!

Cody's birthday dinner! I have kind of made a tradition of taking him to the Melting Pot every year. He loves it! It is his all time favorite so I know I can't go wrong by taking him there. Soooo good!

On Saturday we headed up to the city to do a little sight seeing and hanging out. We went into a store to get a sweatshirt for my mom and we found these hats so we had a photo shoot.

My mom is hilarious!!!

Later we went on the Rocket Tour again. We love it. We always laugh so hard!

Me and my dad waiting in line. His favorite!

Even though we look dorky we wore the ponchos they gave us. We got so soaked last time. They don't tell you you'll get wet unless you ask.

After we walked up to Ghirardelli Square to get ice cream. I guess some of us were tired. Both Cody and my dad fell asleep sitting up. So funny!

That night we went to a show called Teatro ZinZanni. You HAVE to go if you ever get the chance. It was so fun! It is sort of hard to explain exactly what it is but it is kind of like Cirque Du Soleil. They called on Cody to be a volunteer and he ended up being on the stage for almost 30 minutes! It was so funny! The show was 3 hours long and they served us a 5 course dinner. VERY VERY fun!

Thanks mom and dad for coming out to see us! We love you!

LINDSEY!

2009-08-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

This last weekend my friend Lindsey came to visit. She sort of had an ulterior motive (that I might tell you about later) but nevertheless she still had some time to hang out. So here is us at dinner. Isn't it cool how the restaurant is literally right on the water?

Thanks for coming to see us Linds!

VACATION FUN!!!

2009-07-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

We just got home from Cody's family vacation and we had so much fun! Your going to need to stick with me here, I took A LOT of pictures! First we started the trip off by going to Cody's parents vacation home in St. George, then we went down to Newport for the rest of the week.

The first day we spent almost the whole day in the pool. It was so hot! I think the high was 114 degrees!

Cody and his cute mom!

Spa day! This is me, Brianna, Lauren, Carly, and Sydnee with our happy just got pedicure smiles on. Mar was still getting pampered so she's not in the pic. But we have her to thank for the fun day!

That night everyone went bowling. Syd was pulling a Cody by popping her head into our picture.

Cody doing his TURKEY dance! HA HA

Cute Chad and Syd. The cutest engaged couple ever!

Getting married September 25th Yeah!

On our way down to California we stopped just outside of Vegas so we could go on the DESPERADO ROLLER COASTER. I forgot how scary it was! It has a 225 foot drop and 55 degree decent on the first hill! Good thing we're still alive!

The fam in CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE/DISNEYLAND. (Minus Taryn and Mike)

Maybe I am turning into a baby but this year THE TOWER OF TERROR scared me more this time!

Me and Cody in the "C"

The whole day we saw so many DISNEY characters all over the park and people waiting in line to get there pictures with them. We lucked out no waiting for us. We walked by right when Minnie was coming out.

Us with Chad and Syd at dinner. It was fun to have another couple to hang out with.

Later in the week we went to Huntington Beach to the US OPEN surf competition. The waves were huge!!! For sure the biggest I've ever seen. We heard that the life guards usually save on average about 20 people a day and over the weekend they had to rescue about 500 people a day! This picture DOES NOT do justice to how big the waves actually were.

Cute Cody!

Us at the competition. Notice how small the wave-runners are. That kind of shows you how big the waves were.

On Saturday Cody's family had to go home. So Cody and I decided to stay the night at The Island Hotel in Newport Beach. We had tons of fun! We went to dinner, hung out at the pool, ate ice cream, and went shopping at Fashion Island. I love hanging out with just me and Cody. And it helped that the hotel was beautiful!

Thanks Mar and Dave for such a fun trip! You guys do so much for us and we love hanging out with you and the fam!!!

4TH OF JULY

2009-07-15T11:19:00.001-07:00

For the 4th of July we started the day off by going to a GIANTS game!

I am still waiting for the day that I get to see a ball hit into the bay!

Bright sun = not so cute picture of us.

Then later that night we went and watched the fireworks with some friends. We got a little carried away with the camera while we were waiting for our friends to show up.

Good times!!! Holidays still don't quite feel like holidays out here,

just days out having fun. Maybe someday???

LAKE POWELL

2009-07-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Cody and I went to Lake Powell with my family. We had so so so much fun! Here are a few pics from our trip. I am still waiting for some of my family to send me some of theirs. THANKS Mom and Dad for an AMAZING trip! We love you! WARNING...Picture overload!

A pic of the whole fam! We were only missing my brother-in-law Terry and four babies, Zach, Drake, Halle, and Breightlyn.

Me and Code...

I couldn't resist posting this picture of my nephews Parker and Jed.

They were inseparable the whole week!

A little wake boarding trip out on the speed boat.

Cody hanging out with Madi, Branson, and Gabe. They love their uncle Coooody!

This is a pic of some of the girls.

We took a break from laying out on the top of the boat to take a little pic.

Me and Code in the pretty sunset.

Too bad we look like we've been at Lake Powell for a week!

Me, Sara, Amberly, Kate, and my mom!
McCall, Kate, Jim, Cody, and me just finishing a game of TIMES UP!

And last but not least!!! Cody thought he would be funny and jump in on Matt and McCalls picture. Lovely eh? Too bad that was the only one that turned out that good!

Beware Cody will try to jump in on your pictures too!

VISITORS!

2009-06-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had visitors! Yay! Cody's mom, his step dad Dave, and our/their good friends Bret and Cindy. They came down to celebrate Dave's birthday where they started off the trip in Monterey but then ended up in San Francisco. So we managed to squeeze ourselves in on the fun too! Here are a few pics from our fun filled weekend.

Yep we went to WICKED AGAIN!!!

Us at Coit Tower, too bad the elevator wasn't working so we didn't get to go to the top. Don't worry that didn't ruin our fun.

A little pic of the Bay Bridge. We went on the Rocket Tour, which I highly recommend. By the way if any of you want to visit we have a few free tickets. Any takers???

And Alcatraz! I am so fascinated with this prison. I think it is such a cool place to see and such a must for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Thanks guys for coming to see us!!!

CREME BRULE ANYONE?

2009-05-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

I just finished making my first Creme Brule and it was mmm mmm good. I have always wanted to make it but I didn't have a torch and the ramekins, etc. so I never made it. A few weekends ago I finally went out and got everything and now here is my final product.

I would be happy to share the recipe so if any of you want it let me know!

MEMORIAL DAY

2009-05-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

This Memorial Day was definitely a different day then we are used to. We have always spend it with our families so this year we had to be creative. We decided to go to a National Park in Marin, Ca called Muir woods. The park was full of huge red wood trees. I tried to get one whole tree in a picture but they were so tall it wouldn't fit in my lens. The park has a ton of trails to go hiking. We didn't really know which trail to choose so we just randomly picked one and it just so happened we chose the hardest and longest trails of all. We ended up hiking about 6 miles almost all up hill. We could have turned around but kept thinking that eventually the trail would start going down. Somehow it never really did! Even though it was really hard we had so much fun. Here are a few pics from our day!

Thanks Code for such a fun day!

HE PASSED!!!

2009-05-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to dedicate a little post to Cody because after a long and very hard year, he just found out that he passed all four parts of the CPA exam! Yay!

Good job Code I am so proud of you!

AND THE VERDICT IS...

2009-05-20T23:10:00.001-07:00

KRIS ALLEN!!! WHOOOOOO!!! I've been a fan of his for so long and I am stoked! I liked Adam but he was WAY too into himself and well, just not my style.

What do you think of our winner???

Agree or disagree?

MY BIRTHDAY...NUMBER 2?

2009-05-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned a few months ago Cody got me WICKED tickets for my birthday. He bought the tickets clear back in October and we FINALLY got to see the show on Saturday! So needless to say I have been looking forward to this day for VERY long time.

Little did I know the day was going to be filled with tons of surprises. I woke up to Cody telling me we were celebrating my birthday all over again and then we proceeded drive to LaBelle Day Spa to get massages!

Then after our VERY relaxing messages we went to a place called STACKS for breakfast and I got these...YUM.

Then later that day we drove into the city and went to dinner at a restaurant called Market Street, which by the way was GREAT and VERY convenient. It was right across the street from the Orpheum Theatre where we FINALLY saw WICKED!

As previously mentioned I have been looking forward to this for months. I got the CD a few years ago so I already knew I would love it but it completely exceeded my expectations. Even before it got over I wanted to see it again and I was sad when the show ended.

So anyway Cody is the greatest not only for treating me to an amazing day but for also celebrating my February birthday in May!

SANTA CRUZ

2009-04-26T20:14:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we went to Santa Cruz with our friends Ryan and Erica. We knew the whether wasn't going to be great but we went to the beach anyway hoping that maybe by the time we got there the temperature would go up 20 degrees. It didn't. I think the high of the day was 62. So needless to say we decided against getting in the ocean. (We should have gone last week when it was 90 degrees)

After we walked the boardwalk where I got what I think are the cutest yellow shoes in the world. Then we went to lunch at a place called "Aqua Blue". And fittingly the walls were painted aqua blue which I hear is not a color you want to have around food. I heard it makes you lose your appetite. I'm not sure if knowing that info made me not want to eat as much or if it is actually a proven theory but I was not as hungry sitting there waiting to eat as I had been the previous few hours.

Anyway, it was so much fun and we plan on going again in the next few weeks when it is a little warmer. We want to go on all the fun rides that are right there on the beach. If you look closely in the background of our picture you can see the rides. How cool is that?

By the way the guy that is standing behind Cody was in the middle of a photo shoot. Well thats a bit extreme, I wouldn't exactly call it a photo shoot. He was taking pictures of a girl who thought she was a professional model. She was wearing a hideous lime green and black bikini. It was hilarious. You see some funny freaking people in Santa Cruz.

MEET THE GIRLS

2009-04-24T22:21:00.000-07:00

Some of you have been asking to see pictures of the girls I take care of so here they are! Katarina is on the far left, she is 13 then Anna is 12 and Clare is five. I took care of them for the weekend a couple of weeks ago and Cody and I took them bowling. (that's why we look a little beat up) They are definitely a hand full and most the time I feel like a premature mom, by doing laundry, making breakfast and lunch every day, running them to and from school, doing homework and school projects, to dentist and doctors appointments, etc, etc, etc. But they are all hilarious and I laugh all the time. Like any job it has good and bad days but every time Clare or "tare" (as she says it) says "I yuv you in my heart Meg Meg" it makes it all worth it. I have learned so much about motherhood and how I want to raise (and not raise) my kids. I feel so blessed in so many ways to have this job its hard to ever complain. And these days I consider myself VERY lucky to even have a job...

ABC TAG

2009-04-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

TAGGED BY KIMMY

A: Addiction - Currently I am addicted to getting in the best shape of my life

B: Breakfast - Protein Shake, yummy

C: Chocolate or Chips - Chocolate

D: Dessert or Appetizers - Dessert, thanks for asking...I am trying to give it up

E: Essential Items - My Magic Bullet

F: Favorite Color - Pink Pink Pink

G: Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms - Gummy Worms (thanks to Jenelle)

I: Hometown - Layton or L Town as most of Layton High would call it

J: January or July - July

K: Kids - Nope

L: Life Isn't Complete Without - Cody, Family, The Gospel, Food :)

M: Most Exciting Memory - When I got married

N: Numbers of Brothers and Sisters - 3 Brothers 3 Sisters

O: Oranges or Apples - Oranges

P: Phobias or Fears - Snakes and losing Cody

Q: Quote - "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

R: Reading - The Glass Castle right now but anything McCall recommends

S: Summer or Spring - Summer

T: Tag 6 People - Lindsey, Jenelle, Ashley H, Ashlee L, Kim P, and Erica

U: Unknown Fact About Me - I have my toenails painted 100% of the time and when it starts chipping I immediately re-do it. Its a fetish.

V: Vacation I Want To Go On - Somewhere tropical, we are currently trying to figure that out.

W: Walking or Running - Running

X: X-Ray or Ultrasound - ? I've never had either

Y: Your Favorite Food - Roast, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Z: Zoo or Bowling- Zoo

UPDATE

2009-03-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything for over a month and I feel like it has been forever! Quick recap.

Last weekend Cody and I went home. Normally I would say YAY but not so much this time. We flew in late Thursday night and had to wake up at 5:00 a.m. on Friday so I could have a little surgery. (I'll spare you the details) But needless to say my Friday was pretty much shot. Except for Friday night I woke up from sleeping all day and my parents had made Cody and I THE BEST STEAK DINNER ever! Really quick can I just give my parents a shout out for being some of the best cooks in the world!

Then Saturday I woke up at 5:00 a.m. again to be at a hair appointment. I'm letting out a BIG sigh of relief right now. I LOVE having my hair done and it was high time! And after I swung by my BFF Jenelles house to see her new sweet baby. I LOVE her! Whenever I see newborns I get baby hungry. Is that a sign?

The main reason why we even went to Utah was so we could go on a recruiting event for Cody. He spent most of Saturday in Park City and then I went up later just for the dinner. That was about all I could handle given my circumstance. However, I did manage to sqeeze in a quick lunch at Cheesecake with my mom and sisters.

Then we left Sunday. We did make time to stop by Porcupine Grill with Codys fam for some world class nachos before we had to be at the airport. P.S. We have bad luck with delayed airplanes and we also got lost at the SFO airport. We're amatures. :)

The rest of the February was spent working A LOT. Busy season for Cody (which hasn't really ended) and I worked more than normal too. (The girls parents were traveling etc.)

Oh and one more thing Cody came home the other day with a huge arrangement of flowers for no reason at all. What a sweetie! (Just for the record that is a rare occurrence so I have to soak it up)

HOCKEY NIGHT

2009-02-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

The other night we went to the SAN JOSE Sharks game. It's always good to have a date night with Cody. The game was so fun. There were some way intense fights and it's always entertaining to watch the players skate. I can never get over how good they are.