Joe & Jo

2012-02-11T14:21:00.000-08:00

The only time I ever feel like blogging is when I am procrastinating doing homework. I have a 15 page paper due this week so of course I thought I should probably do a little update. I think a combination of not having a good camera and posting 95% of my pictures to instagram has caused me to blog less. Oh well. Since the last post, we had a great christmas break. We went to St. George with all of Joey's family for a week and had lots of fun playing with our cute nieces and nephews and just hanging out. Then we went to Cabo with my family for a week and enjoyed the sun and ocean. We swam with dolphins, scuba dived, rode horses on the beach, zip lined, and hung out by the pool. The weather was perfect too. We both started new semesters and Joey is still loving computer science and now has an internship with a iphone app company. My semester is going alright (besides this paper that I don't want to write) but I'm really looking forward to the summer. I'll still be in school to get enough credits for residency, but I will be able to do a clinic along with my classes, which gives you hands on experience for credit. I've been doing a family law clinic every other week, which is where law students go to a free legal clinic and work with attorneys to give legal advice to those who can't afford it. It's pretty fun (but hard since I still know very little about the law haha) and is a good way to remember what the whole point of law school is. And besides all of that stuff, we are still skiing as much as we can. Skiing makes winter in Utah a whole lot better. Here's a pic of me up at Canyons with some of my law school friends.

2011-12-12T13:51:00.000-08:00

So once again it's been a while since we've blogged but you haven't missed much. For thanksgiving we went to my family's house in Seattle and had a great time with the whole family. This year we made two turkeys--one was deep fried. It turned out well but I'm not really sure if there was that much of a difference flavor-wise. We ate lots of good food, played squash, shopped, and my dad beat Joey in a push-up contest by an embarrassing amount (65 to 33).

Back in Utah, we are dying for snow. It has only snowed a few times and since Joey is now obsessed with skiing, we are just wishing for a few more feet of snow. It's been freezing, but sunny for the past week or two. I miss the snow! I figure if it's going to be cold, you might as well get some pretty snow. Especially since we walk to school, we don't care if the roads are bad. I'm hoping for a snowpocalypse sometime soon.

We have our season pass to Canyons. I've been twice and Joey has been like a million times (ok, maybe like 7). It's really nice that it is only 25 minutes from our home. But, I am in the midst of finals so I don't really have that much time to ski right now. I've taken one final and have two more to go over the next week. Can't wait for winter break!!

Last night we went to a white elephant party that was lots of fun. This is a pic of all the boys and their loot. There was lots of stealing going on, but Joey lucked out and got the highly-coveted $15 gift card to McDonalds.

Fall

2011-11-16T13:43:00.001-08:00

There hasn't been much to post about lately or any good pictures to share. We've had a pretty fun fall and are getting excited about the snow and ski season. School is definitely rough right now and will be until finals are over. Just counting down the days to winter break...anyway, here's a couple of pics from my phone depicting a donut eating contest from a ceiling fan on Halloween, ice skating, and pumpkin seeds.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T09:55:00.001-07:00

dude ranch

2011-10-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the pictures from the dude ranch I went to with my sister over fall break. We were only there for two full days but we had a busy schedule. It was in the upper 90's the whole time, but we just put on lots of sunscreen and had fun anyway.

We went riding both mornings we were there. We grew up riding horses and elizabeth especially loved them. I hadn't ridden in a few years so I was a little worried that I would be scared to canter but it ended up being way fun.

Since it was still really early in the season for the dude ranch, there were maybe like 3 other people staying at the ranch. That meant we had the whole place to ourselves and were the only ones riding one morning.

Before this trip, I had never shot a gun before. I was a little scared that the kick back on the gun would knock me over but it really wasn't that bad. The gun was way heavy though, and my left arm was incredibly sore for days after. We got to do skeet shooting, but I wasn't very good. I only hit 3 out of 25 targets and elizabeth hit 9.

We also went golfing...not my favorite activity but we saw lots of deer and rabbits on every hole.

Grand Canyon

2011-10-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

This weekend I flew to Phoenix to spend the weekend on a dude ranch (more pics on that later) and luckily I had a window seat because we flew right over the Grand Canyon. I took like a million pictures on my phone since I've never seen it before and have wanted to for a while. Pretty cool. Even from 30,000 ft it looks enormous!

2011-10-08T10:13:00.001-07:00

Last weekend my parents came down to Salt Lake for a visit. We saw a lot of family, went to the Utah v. UW football game, saw the leaves in Park City, went to a session of General Conference, and took them to one of our favorite restaurants, the Copper Onion. A really busy weekend but it was so fun to have them here.

The month of September was seriously amazing here. Warm and sunny almost every day. October has been a rude awakening--on Thursday it snowed!

While my parents were in the president's box, Joey and I were in the MUSS. It was pretty rowdy, but fun. Too bad we lost.

Causey Reservoir

2011-09-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, we went up to Causey reservoir with our friends sarah and tyler. It's about an hour north of salt lake and we had heard there was some good cliff jumping. When we arrived, I dipped my toe in the water and knew that I probably wasn't going to get in. It was freezing. My more adventurous friends jumped in and swam across to the other side to jump off a cliff.

I think this is a picture of sarah jumping, but it's so far away I can't really tell. As they were all swimming back, I guess their bodies started going into shock and they could barely move their arms. Despite the cold, it was really gorgeous out there and I was surprised at all the greenery since so much of utah is brown. The fall here has been amazing, it still feels like summer and I hope it lasts a few more weeks.

2011-09-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

Three weeks into law school and I'm still alive. Truthfully it hasn't been as bad as lots of people make it out to be, but I know it's probably really premature to say that. So far it has mostly been just lots of reading and re-reading and taking notes. The material is definitely difficult, and it's crazy how ten pages of reading can take an hour to cover. Thankfully, I've still been able to spend time with Joey and friends and we've been taking advantage of the tennis courts in the park next to our apartment. We love living so close to school and the park is an added bonus.

Sarah's a pro

Law School

2011-08-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

Today I finished my last day of orientation before law school really starts. It's been a busy and (kind of) fun week. I've heard so much about how insane the first year of law school is, so I'm just a little nervous, but excited at the same time. One thing that's fun is that everyday I walk by pictures of every class thats graduated from the U, and if I look close enough at 1975, I get to see my parents and their 70's hair-dos. Pretty sweet.

New Hampshire 2011

2011-08-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

We spent the first week of August in New Hampshire with my family. This year was a little different because we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Roland Park on Roland Park Day, and many of our relatives and friends were up for the week as well.

It was the first time that all four of the siblings have been in NH together in probably 5 or so years so that was fun.

Our 2nd cousins (once removed?) were there as well and it is always more fun with them. We went on our traditional canoe trip, and thankfully no one capsized their boat this time.

Of course Joey took advantage of every rope swing a long the way.

The results of our canoe race. You can't see the other 3 boats because they are too far behind us, but Joey and I pulled out another win, while Elizabeth and Drew came in at a close second.

We went to the Wolfeboro fair and realized it should have been called a swap meet with a few dinky rides. We risked our lives to go on the swings and I think you can tell by Joey's expression that it was worth it.

Everyone got their own t-shirts (designed by Sarah) and we wore them proudly on Roland Park Day.

We continued the tradition of friendly competition on vacation by holding a quadrathalon which included canoeing, swimming, running and biking. You can see Joey in the last canoe, waiting patiently while his partner carefully steered the canoe across the lake. Even though by the time he finally got in the water, the first swimmer was basically across the lake, he was able to make up time and came out of the water second. If you know how competitive Joey is, it was pretty funny watching him fall further and further behind on the canoe and not be able to do anything about it.

All the competitors

New Hampshire just wouldn't be the same without homemade ice cream.

birthday

2011-08-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday than relaxing in the sun with some my favorite people (and dog).

I'm seriously going to miss this face when I leave.

some summer

2011-07-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been much to blog about so far this summer. Joey has been working 6 days a week, and the weather has been subpar, to say the least. I have only a few pics to share...

On 4th of july weekend, some of my cousins came to visit. We kayaked around the island through a sort of relay; each pair kayaked for an hour, and then the boat would find them and switch out new people.

Cousins eating ice cream

Yesterday we went up to Alderbrook on the hood canal. We only went for a night but it was fun to ride the ferry and get a way for a bit.

This summer seems to be going by way too fast and right now we are focused on moving down to salt lake and getting everything ready for our new apartment. Kind of stressful but exciting at the same time.

summer at seabrook

2011-07-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

Since we had such a good time at Seabrook last October, we decided to go back again this summer. This time we had almost the whole family there, and the weather was perfect, although not quite warm.

At the beach where they had a professional sand sculpture contest. We came early and only saw the foundations for the sculptures.

If we see something that looks cool but kind of dangerous, we send Joey to do it for the picture. He is happy to cooperate.

We brought our paddle boards with us and Joey and I rented wetsuits. The water was freezing but with a wetsuit it wasn't cold at all. They weren't great surfing waves but Joey was able to paddle out and catch a few little ones.

2011-06-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from the one day of real summer we've had in Seattle so far. Maybe that's not entirely true, but there is never a guarantee of sun in Seattle, especially in June. I actually don't care much, I'd rather have cloudy 60 degree weather than heat, but I'm sure that's just from growing up here. It is gorgeous here on a sunny day though.

As I mentioned earlier, in the fall I am heading to law school, which means Joey and I are moving to Salt Lake City to both attend University of Utah. We are sad to leave Seattle (and are dreading more utah winters), but we are so excited to be back with our friends and to be going to the same university.

Barcelona & Amsterdam

2011-06-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

After our week in Italy, Elizabeth went to London to work and Alexis and I went to Barcelona. We all met up again for our final weekend in Amsterdam.

Tapas in Barcelona. In Spain, no one even starts to think about dinner until at least 9:30 pm. We went to this tapas bar at 9:30 and got seats quickly, but on our way out at 10:30, there was a line out the door.

The architecture in Barcelona is really cool thanks to Gaudi.

On Las Ramblas, the big tourist and pick pocket filled street where you can find souvenirs, ice cream, and all sorts of pets.

Now in Amsterdam. I seriously LOVED amsterdam. Aside from the Red Light district, which is really creepy, and the "coffee" shops, I think the city is so beautiful.

We stayed in the neighborhood of Jordaan, just a few blocks from where Anne Frank's family hid. They have turned the attic into a museum and it is definitely worth going.

We missed the tulip season by just a month but there were still flowers everywhere.

A very skinny house. They used to tax properties by how wide they were, so people would make them skinny and long I guess.

So beautiful, I could definitely live there if it weren't for the language barrier. After Amsterdam, we all went home to New York, L.A., and Seattle. It was fun spending time with my sisters since we all live far from each other. But there is nothing better than coming home, especially to my last carefree summer before law school starts.

Italy

2011-06-21T08:00:00.001-07:00

To celebrate Alexis' graduation, my sisters and I took a trip to Europe for two weeks. We started off in Rome but spent most of our first week on the Amalfi Coast, a place we had never been before. I definitely think it is one of the prettiest places in Italy and want to go back with Joey.

Trevi fountain. Rome was filled with tourists everywhere we went, it took some maneuvering to get this shot.

Bernini Fountain

St. Peter's on our way to the Travestere neighborhood for some dinner. Elizabeth has spent more time in Rome than us and brought us to her favorite restaurants. We seriously ate way too much at every meal.

We took a train from Rome to Naples and even though it was raining, we still enjoyed some famous pizza.

View from our hotel in Sorrento. That's Mt. Vesuvius in the back.

At Pompeii, the Roman town that was destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius.

The people in Pompeii were suffocated by the ashes and the plaster molds of their bodies that were preserved by the volcanic material shows the position they died in. Pretty creepy.

Lemons are the big produce item in Sorrento and there are entire tourist stores dedicated to everything lemon.

We took a boat trip to the island of Capri. It was seriously so amazing. The water was so clear and blue.

We stopped at several caves and grottos for swimming, and our boat driver tried to get us to cave dive but we were all too chicken. Joey would have loved it.

The blue grotto. This is the big tourist attracting on Capri. We had to wait a half hour for our turn to pay 10 euros to get in a little rowboat, lie down and go through that tiny entrance, and spend a few minutes in awe of the glowing blue water.

Next place we stayed was Positano, a gorgeous beach town perched on the cliffs.

Amalfi Coast

Back in Rome for another weekend, we went to all the necessary stops--the pantheon, vatican, Colosseum, forum, etc.

Back at the Trevi fountain at night

Illegal picture of the Sistine chapel

Around town

2011-06-02T10:56:00.001-07:00

Central Park

At FAO Schwarz--the one with the famous piano.

On the Chelsea highline.

Empire State building in the back

The Chelsea Hotel

The New York Stock Exchange on a Sunday

This is how we ended the weekend on Monday. It was so hot this weekend, we just kept looking for parks and shade. We were exhausted from all the sightseeing but had an amazing time and are trying to figure out how we can possibly move to new york in the future. I told my sister we could just be her permanent house guests but I don't think she liked the idea.

Statue of Liberty

2011-06-01T13:14:00.001-07:00

Visiting the Statue of Liberty was apparently a very popular thing to do on Memorial Day weekend. When we arrived at Battery park, there was an enormous line of people waiting to go. Luckily we had reserved tickets for a certain time and we only had to wait about 30 minutes. It felt great to be out on the water on such a hot day.

When we pulled up to the island, we saw that there was a line to get back on the boat and we didn't get want to get stuck there so we just stayed on the boat. We felt kind of guilty about it but this is a pretty good view, right?

Brooklyn Bridge and Times Square

2011-06-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we walked the Brooklyn Bridge. It was so hot that day (and pretty much every day were were there) and the bridge was pretty crowded.

Times Square

We went to the Harry Potter exhibit in Times Square. We wanted to buy wands but weren't going to pay 50 dollars for them. Here I am battling with Voldemort's wand and Elizabeth has Harry Potter's.

New York City: Museums

2011-05-31T08:24:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day weekend, Joey and I went to New York City to spend the weekend with Elizabeth and see the sights. This was Joey's first time so we had to go to all the important places, like the statue of liberty and times square. On our first day we went to both the Museum of Natural History and the Met.

Cool fossils

We get bored just doing normal poses sometimes, so we try to make it interesting.

The Met

We spent a lot of time just sitting in this room, resting from all of our walking. More pictures to come soon!

other california adventures

2011-05-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

After graduation, we stayed a few days in California to get some sun and spend time with family. We went to the newer Getty museum on Friday and we loved the gardens. We didn't have much time to spend in the museum before it closed, but it was worth the trip just to see the amazing flowers. The museum felt like a huge stone castle up on a hill, it was pretty cool.

That night we had dinner at Villa Blanca with some of Alexis' friends, and we were lucky enough to get to meet Giggy!! (Unless you watch Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, you won't know who I am talking about)

Then we went to the old Getty on Saturday. The museums have such different vibes but both are amazing. This one was created as a replica of a Roman villa that was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted.

We had lunch in Manhattan Beach where my cousin is building his dream house.

Beach! Way too cold to go in though.

Alexis's Graduation

2011-05-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

As Joey mentioned, this weekend my parents and I went to California to celebrate Alexis's graduation from University of Southern California. This was the first time I got to see the campus and her apartment and it was a lot of fun. The day of graduation was pretty hectic and crowded, but we got pretty good seats for the Annenberg School graduation to watch her walk across the stage and get her diploma.

Congrats Alexis!

Sunskiis Day

2011-05-14T12:28:00.001-07:00

Johanna is out of town this weekend, in California, for Alexis’s graduation and I am home all alone. I have been further cursing myself by listening to “ one is the loneliest number”. However, it seems the world does not agree with this self-indulging attitude of mine and has given me a beautiful sunny day in Seattle. Me + white chair + sun = happy. So, my most cursed friend (Mikey (the dog)) and I have been frolicking in the back yard. I call him my cursed friend because we disagree on everything. Just the other day I said, “ mikey I will hook you up with some extra food if you don’t poop in the house”. So, I gave him some extra food and what did he do? He pooped in the house. We also strongly disagree on politics but I wont bore you all with that.

putting

2011-05-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

This week we played a few rounds at a putting course at Newcastle. I won of course. If you want the full saga in detail, here is my dad's post http://2v0m.zapd.co/

Lately

2011-05-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

taco truck

mexican coke

sunbathing with my pup

Hawaii

2011-04-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

Joey and were lucky enough to spend a whole week in Hawaii at his parents' house. We went on walks, runs, spent time at the beach and with friends, joey got to surf, and we had many wonderful meals. There's not many pictures, partly because I came down with a bad cold/flu and wasn't really feeling photogenic. But we still had a great time in the warm weather with Joey's parents and can't wait to go back.

Half-Marathon

2011-03-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

This saturday Joey decided to put his new love of running to the test and signed up for the half-marathon on sunday. The race goes around the whole island and luckily it was a beautiful day. He signed up 30 minutes before the race, and finished in 1:48. He has been running a lot lately, but usually around 5-6 miles and never more than 8. Time and time again I have been impressed by his physical endurance that he seems to just naturally have. It is definitely a trait that I do not possess. You would have had to twist my arm just to do the 5k race.

Proud of him!

A Walk in the Woods

2011-03-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

Look who we ran into...

California

2011-03-15T11:50:00.001-07:00

I'm so mad I didn't take more pictures from our weekend trip to california. We went down there to spend time with Joey's family and have a mini-family reunion. We had so much fun and packed a lot into a short weekend, but I only have a few pics that my Dad took from disneyland on friday. I haven't been to disneyland since I was 15, so I was very excited to go. It definitely didn't disappoint.

I love this picture, it makes me laugh every time I look at it. This was from the third round on Space Mountain.

Here we are in front of the Screamin California. I've been scared of roller coasters my whole life, but Annie assured me this roller coaster was really not that bad. Wrong. I screamed my head of the whole time and thought I was going to die.

Jack Black at Disneyland!

It was fun to see my sister and dad at disneyland for the day.

I really wish I had more pictures from the weekend. We celebrated Annie's and Jordan's birthdays at Irvine Park on Saturday with a huge picnic and a game of miller ball. We went to main beach on Sunday and just enjoyed the sun. It was so fun to see all of our adorable nieces and nephews and spend time with Joey's grandparents. We were so sad to leave, and regretted that we didn't apply to any schools down there. I guess we will just have to visit more often!

Thank you March

2011-03-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrated the end of february by going shopping downtown and finally doing our christmas returns and exchanges. It has been too cold and rainy and just grey to consider going shopping downtown until today. Finally, there was a little bit of blue sky! Joey has been craving doughnuts so we tried out Top Pot and it was yuuummy.

Just a few more days until california, and a few more weeks until hawaii, and we will truly get to enjoy some sun!

New Hampshire

2011-02-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

For presidents day weekend, we decided to venture over to the east coast and stay at our house in New Hampshire. I've been there countless times, but always in August. My dad, Elizabeth, and Andy went two years ago and Elizabeth vowed she would never go again because it was so cold. Somehow she forgot this and took the train up from NY to meet us there. When we arrived in Boston it was 50 degrees, which was just balmy compared to Seattle. When we got to the house, there were several feet of snow and a full moon out. Everything was fine until we found a dead squirrel in one of the toilets. And then the temperature started dropping and the wind picked up. And then Joey and I had to sleep in the living room with only the 100 year old non-insulated walls and a weak space heater to protect us from the cold. Worst night of my life. The picture below shows how comfortable our bed and blankets were. The next two nights were spent in the addition to the house which we called the "Tahiti Room." Even though all five of us slept in there on mattresses on the floor, it was much preferable to getting hypothermia.

Other than that, the weekend ended up being really fun! We want to make it a new tradition.

View from the house. We had really nice blue skies the whole time.

Looking out over the frozen lake.

Snowshoeing on the frozen lake. The whole time I kept imagining the scene from Little Women when Amy breaks through the ice, so I was listening very intently for cracking ice just in case.

Cross-Country Skiing.

Most extreme tubing I've ever done. You can either go down the hill normal, or with a spin. Don't do the spin unless you want to feel like you are going to throw up for five minutes.

This trail was called Sunset Beach for some reason. Another one was called Rocky Point so it makes me wonder if a bunch of surf bums are running this thing. Joey had never xc skied before, so naturally he didn't take any advice from me and did just fine.

Rock Climb

2011-02-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Joey and I climbed the rock wall at REI. Every time I drive past it on the freeway I think, hey I should do that sometime. But I never had until this weekend. I made the reservation and didn't tell Joey. He is always saying how I'm not adventurous and I'm scared of everything (I don't know why he would say that) so I thought this would be an unexpected surprise. But when I got there and saw how tall it was, I thought my plan might backfire and I wouldn't be able to make it to the top.

Thankfully I pushed past my desire to stop half way through and made it.

This is Joey's climb in reverse (I hate uploading pics to blogger). He chose a more difficult route than me, but his rock climbing skills from his younger years kicked in and he did great.

My Addiction

2011-02-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

Since Joey recently quit World of Warcraft (you have no idea how much joy I get from writing that), he has been bothering my about MY addiction. He thinks I am addicted to the internet and reading blogs. While I don't spend nearly as much time reading blogs as he did raiding, jewel crafting, mining, and acquiring mounts, I do admit to being slightly addicted. But, what Joey doesn't realize is that I'm not just addicted to reading blogs and facebook, the majority of my time on the internet is probably spent reading food blogs. Which is strange, considering that I never cook! I don't know what it is, but I just love reading about recipes and food, bookmarking them for future use, even though most likely I will never make them. My main source of food inspiration is the Pioneer Woman and her site, Tasty Kitchen, which I visit at least once a day to see the new featured recipes. Then I will usually see a link to a different blog and then spend twenty minutes reading about this random person's life, recipes, and food philosophy.

Usually I make a new recipe that I find from a blog once every two months or so. This week I finally made a recipe I have had my eye on for months...

PW's Pasta With Tomato Cream Sauce.

YUM. It was amazing. Even Joey liked it and he doesn't usually like pasta.

This recipe was easy. Not like PW's Red Thai duck Curry that I am almost positive I will never make this even though it sounds delicious. Too much effort but I still love reading about the process and the results.

And this coconut gelato? If I ever made that (and it turned out), I would consider myself pretty much an expert.

But for now I will just be content to save them in my recipe box and drool over the pictures.

p.s. these photos are obviously not mine but are taken from tastykitchen.com

Hockey Game

2011-01-31T09:40:00.000-08:00

This Saturday we went to the seattle thunderbirds hockey game. I'd never been to a hockey game before but it was fun! The crowd was way into it and kept chanting "you suck, you suck, you suck!" to the other team and every time someone got checked or a fight began to break out they went nuts. Very entertaining.

finger shoes

2011-01-29T16:02:00.000-08:00

After reading the book Born to Run, my Dad and I were both convinced of the merits of barefoot running. Despite the fact that I am a very reluctant runner, we decided to buy some running shoes that allow you to basically run barefoot but with some protection from the elements. I tried them out today and I have to say I'm not so sure about them. I can get over the fact that they look super weird, but they kind of hurt my feet and avoiding pain is supposed to be the whole point in barefoot running! I don't know if these were the best investment, but I do recommend the book, even if you don't like running.

Hot or Not

2011-01-26T10:44:00.000-08:00

Last night Joey and I joined my brother and Jennifer for some hot yoga. I've done yoga a handful of times before, but have never done hot yoga, although it has always intrigued me. Well then out of the blue while we were enjoying some Turkish hummus and pita at Ephesus (the restaurant), my brother says that they have a new hobby of hot yoga. So we joined them at Breathe yoga studio last night for a 90 minute sweating session. Thankfully they have the room "zoned" so that the back of the room is only upper 80's while the front is in the 100's. Joey and I both enjoyed it and will be going back again since it will be free for the next two weeks for us. I have to say that the warmth of the room did seem to contribute to muscle flexibility and it's kind of fun to feel like you are really working hard, even if the sweat is really just from the temperature. I'd be curious to know if anyone else has tried this and if they liked it...

Oscars

2011-01-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

Ever since the oscars last year, I've had a plan to watch every oscar nominated movie for 2011 so that when it came to the actual show, I would be excited to watch. I don't like the superbowl and could care less who wins (unless the seahawks are in it), so I've got to occupy my time with something right? Well, they finally came out with the nominations this morning and I've got a lot of watching to do. Out of the ten movies, I've only seen inception, king's speech, and the social network (as of last night), and I loved them all. Once I've seen them all, I'll make my predictions and hopefully a few bets with my family. Anyone have any predictions?

Belize

2011-01-07T10:11:00.001-08:00

The day after Christmas, my family headed out the door at 4 am to make our way down to Belize. Three planes, one cab ride, a boat ride, and 12 hours later, we arrived at our hotel on Ambergris Caye.

This is the small plane we took from Belize city to Ambergris Caye. If you know me, then you know I hate planes in the first place and had never ridden on a prop plane before. There were only nine seats on the plane, it was so tiny! But as nervous as I was, it was actually an enjoyable plane ride with a nice view.

Lizards and Iguanas everywhere! They actually eat them here, one of our guide said they taste like chicken.

That's the dock for our hotel. For the most part the water here was gorgeous, so so clear and green. But all the beaches here are actually man made, so the water up to the beaches is really really shallow and has plants in it. And there's a lot of trash in it, which is really sad.

Joey, my Dad, and I spent the first two days diving. I wish we had an underwater camera to show all the amazing things we saw! Joey did about five dives since he was getting certified and my Dad and I did two, the first to 30 feet and the second to 80 feet. We saw so many manta rays and sting rays, nurse sharks (which aren't scary sharks), huge crabs, barracudas (which were pretty scary), and so many fish. On our 80 foot dive, we went through the coolest canyon type thing. Belize is famous for it's diving, and there is so much more to see there so we want to go back. Snorkeling was really amazing too, we went to Hol Chan reef and Shark Ray alley. We also saw a hammerhead shark!! But thankfully we were in the boat when our driver somehow saw its shadow and turned the boat around. It was like 10 feet and I was glad I wasn't in the water.

Our hotel was on the northern part of the island, so if we wanted to get to San pedro, the town center, we had to drive in a golf cart for about 45 minutes over some pretty bad roads. It was quite the adventure.

Joey going on one of his certification dives with random people.

In San Pedro. It's not the most happening town.

One day we went to the Mayan ruins of Lamonai. It took a one hour boat ride in the ocean, a 1 hour bus ride, and then another 1 hour boat ride up the Belize River to get there. But we got to see lots of cool wildlife on the river, including these spider monkeys and even crocodiles! There are lots of birds there too. We also rode by a Menonite community. They live there tax free and provide most of the dairy and poultry products for the country.

Ruins of Lamonai. One of our tour guides told us that this is a popular destination for Mormons because some scholars believe that Nephites and Lamanites lived here.

We climbed the biggest one, and it was so scary coming down!

At the top.

The main transportation on the Caye was definitely boats. Which really posed a problem if you wanted to keep your hair from getting tangled. Not only that, it was pretty windy the whole time. Not like random gusts of wind, but like constant wind that never died. And of course the day we left it finally did.

Our house at Portofino.

Plane pics again. Alexis got to sit in the cockpit with the pilot.

View of reef from plane on the way back.

We also went to the ruins of Altuna Ha. Here our guide is poking a stick down a tarantula hole. We got to see its legs but it wouldn't come out!

We went to a baboon reserve. They are actually howler monkeys but they call them baboons. There's about 2000 monkeys in the reserve, but we had to make our plane so we could only stay for ten minutes. Right when we walked in, the guide just called down the family and they come for the fruit.

Do you see the cutest little baby monkey ever on its moms back?

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T17:11:00.000-08:00

Even though I wish I still believed in Santa Claus because Christmas is way more exciting if you do, I still love Christmas. The combination of everyone home for a week, good food, friends, and new presents is always something to look forward to. And next year we will have warm weather in hawaii to top it off!

My dad's birthday dinner on the 21st

Joey loving his new suit.

We weren't sure if our christmas tree would make it to christmas without falling over. It kept leaning to one side, even though we tried many times to straighten it.

The grinch on Christmas morning.

One Year

2010-12-23T20:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Anniversary to us!

Happy Birthday

2010-12-07T21:38:00.001-08:00

This guy...

turned 24 today.

Feliz Cumpleanos. Te amo.

(Written in Spanish in honor of Joey completing Spanish 1)

Snow Day

2010-11-23T17:23:00.001-08:00

It snowed all day yesterday and today school was canceled for Joey. Seattle's supposed to be in for one of the worst winters in the last fifty years. Looks like it's going to be a fun one!

Seabrook

2010-10-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend we drove a couple of hours to the coast and stayed at Seabrook. The weather cooperated perfectly and even though it was a little chilly, it was clear skies.

View of the sunset from our rental house.

Don't pay attention to my stylish jacket, I couldn't find my winter clothes before we left so I had to grab my Dad's jacket that he bought in the 1970's. At least it was warm.

We entered a sand castle contest...

Joey claims he masterminded it all.

And we won! Our prize was 50 dollars to the gift shop. We felt pretty good about our win, despite the fact that every other team had at least one kid under the age of 6.

Biking around Seabrook. The houses there are so cute!

Joey sporting his new hat that we got from our sandcastle prize money.

At the Quinalt rainforest.

France continued...

2010-10-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

Carcassone

Le Beaux de Provence. We almost got our heads chopped off.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Provence is gorgeous.

Is it weird to have a favorite road? These plane trees lined the road for a couple of miles, it was really pretty.

Roussilon

Canoeing down the Dordogne in the rain

Strasburg

The cathedral in Strasburg is seriously enormous, this isn't even like half of it.

Loire Valley

2010-09-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

The first region we stayed in after Paris was the Loire Valley which is known for its chateauxs. The landscape was mostly just farm land and sunflower fields, with these enormous chateauxs throughout the countryside. It was a pretty area with lots of cute towns that always seemed to be deserted when we drove through them.

This was our cute hotel.

Chenanceaux

Ok I had never had a macaroon before this trip but I had seen them on food blogs and such. I always thought they would be crunchy and was never really tempted to taste one. But I did and they were amazing. I couldn't believe what I had been missing out on!

Joey buying bread at the farmer's market in Amboise.

There was this garden festival going on where artists from around the world create mini gardens going off of a theme. There were a lot of interactive ones and some that were just confusing.

Cheverny

Versailles

2010-09-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

On a day trip from Paris we visited Versailles, home to Louis XIV. We arrived just as it opened to avoid the crowds and toured the enormous and over the top mansion. I don't think there was an inch of space in there without some sort of decoration. By lunch time I realized that the gladiator sandals that I had worn which had absolutely no shape, shock absorbers, or padding were the wrong choice of shoe for the day. Thankfully, we decided to rent bikes (one of many ways to get around the gardens, including golf carts) and that made the afternoon so much better. The gardens are expansive and there is just so much to see. By four p.m. we had seen all that we could and I left limping, vowing to never wear those shoes on the trip again.

He liked gold.

Hall of Mirrors. This is where the treaty of Versailles was signed at the end of WWI.

We wished we could have been there when the fountains were on, I'm sure it is even more amazing.

Marie Antionette's village.

Joey's artistic shot, he is very proud of this one.

Paris

2010-09-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Paris after a relatively short flight from Boston. It was a perfect sunny day! Being tired and jet lagged, we decided to hop on one of those double decker open roof buses in order to take in the sights with minimal effort. They go all around the city to the most important sites, while you just get to sit back and relax and try to stay awake. Even though I was tired, my opinion that Paris is the most beautiful city in the world was reconfirmed to me. I love that place!

Napolean's Tomb

I'm not really sure where this is, but I do think that I am asleep in this photo. Even the beautiful sites of Paris can't compete with jet lag sometimes.

Notre Dame. I almost fell asleep inside here too, but that's not my fault, it was just dark and really quiet in there.

The Eiffel Tower. Honestly, I don't think I could ever get sick of looking at it, especially at night.

Joey's first glimpse of the eiffel tower. Our hotel was on Rue Cler, which is like a 5-10 minute walk to the tower so it was perfect. There will be more of Paris when Joey and I come back at the end of our trip.

2010-09-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

On another one of those rainy days in New Hampshire (there were a lot of them) we decided to get some DIY projects done around the house. We have some cool dressers, probably from around 50 years or so ago (the house is over 100 years old), that I love, but they needed some spiffing up. So we spent the afternoon sanding and painting.

Before

After

candlepin bowling

2010-09-24T08:26:00.001-07:00

On one of those rainy days in new hampshire, we decided to go candlepin bowling. In case you aren't familiar with this game, it is similar to bowling, but the ball is much smaller, the pins are skinnier, and you roll the ball three times instead of two. When we first got there and were handed our piece of paper to keep score, they told us we didn't need to worry about how to score spares and strikes since they are pretty rare. Well, we proved them wrong fast, all of us except Joey and my dad. It turns out my mom could go pro at candlepin bowling and got a spare or strike on almost every single turn. Even though Joey and my dad both claimed to have perfect form and never stopped critiquing my form (bend your knees!) neither could get a spare over two games. Finally, on Joey's last turn, he managed to get one spare, leaving my dad as the only member of the Big Regrets Club.

Joey, devastated by his inability to knock down pins.

New Hampshire 2010

2010-09-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

We are finally back! Well we actually got back on Saturday but I'm only now organized enough to actually begin blogging about the crazy month we had. We have definitely done a lot and I don't know how thoroughly I want to cover everything because there are a lot of pictures but oh well, I'm just going to start and see when I get tired of it. So our vacation began by spending two weeks in New Hampshire. My family has owned a house out there for forever (my dad has been going there his whole life too) and we usually go every year or two. A typical day there might go something like this: wake up to homemade blueberry muffins (which can be baked only by goodrich men), play tennis, bocci ball, or badminton, read, lunch, sit by the lake all afternoon, read, dinner, games, and ice cream, always ice cream. So relaxing and I especially loved having no computers (meaning no video games either). I think I read five books while I was there, which is probably my favorite thing to do. The cell service is pretty bad up there too so you really do feel isolated. The weather is normally great in August, but this year it was cloudy for the first couple days and then one day it rained like a hurricane. So on those days we stuck to buying furniture for the house and reading.

Canoeing on the same river that my parents capsized on earlier this year. Looks pretty intense right? Joey and I are more advanced canoe-ers and made it through all the "rapids".

Rope Swinging it

Joey went golfing for the first time. We tried over and over to tell him to keep his left arm straight but as you can see, he couldn't quite get it down.

My dad went windsurfing pretty much everyday, even when there wasn't much wind. There are no boats allowed on the lake so you can swim across it and it's really clean.

As you can see, I'm reeally excited to be geocaching. Shockingly, we couldn't find the cache.

Homemade ice cream, yuum

Hiking

It got kind of hard, was not too happy.

Joey on the porch

We usually get to see some relatives in NH, here we are with my Aunt Jill, Uncle John, and cousin Ashley.

2010-08-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

Last week we said goodbye to Provo for good and drove up to Seattle where it was 90 degrees and sunny all weekend long. I hate road trips, but it was much more enjoyable with my friend Nicole who came up with us and stayed a few days in Seattle and Joey's friend Lance, who helped bring up all of our stuff in his truck and also stayed a few days. Since the weather was so perfect, we just played in the water and went boating all day. Words can't describe how happy I am to be home and to be having a real summer.

This is Joey's new shark shirt. He likes it.

My favorite puppy

Flowers we bought from pike place market. We didn't realize they were dried flowers until we got home, which means they still look the same even a week later!

Nicole and I at Pike Place Market

These pics are from my birthday dinner up at Sundance. It was really pretty up there!

We leave tomorrow for New Hampshire and then Europe in about 10 days. We won't be back until mid-September so you probably won't be hearing from us until then! Hope everyone is having a good end of summer!

2010-08-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

Joey's aunt GG is friends with the church's official portrait artist, William Whitaker, who has done the portraits for basically all the apostles. Yesterday, Joey went to his house to pose for a few photos that he might use for some paintings. I was bummed I couldn't come with him because I was studying for finals (almost done!) but apparently he tried on lots of costumes, including an authentic civil war uniform and roman clothes. I wish I could have been there to see them, maybe I'll have to wait to see him in a painting haha. I thought this was a cute picture of Joey so I wanted to share since he is always complaining that the he looks bad in the pictures I post of him on this blog.

2010-07-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

Finally, something to blog about. This summer has not been the most eventful. I've had a lot of schoolwork and it's just so hot in Utah that I don't even want to go outside in the day. I'm just used to Seattle summers and can't stand over 90 degrees, I'm a wimp. Anyway, since I finished the rough draft of my paper a week ago, I've had a little more time to take advantage of the summer. Our friends Nick and Kim were nice enough to invite us on their boat for a day of wakeboarding, tubing, and messing around on Utah lake.

Apparently it's fun to be dragged behind the boat, I wouldn't know myself but it seems painful.

I got up on the wakeboard after a few tries. I only lasted like 30 seconds before I let go though. You can tell I'm going sooo slow haha and you can also see joey's head in the water behind me.

Joey about to wipe out

Every thursday they put on an outdoor movie at the Utah State Capitol. This week some friends and I went up to Salt lake to watch the goonies. The capitol is so gorgeous. It was such a nice night, so pretty and the temperature was perfect.

In other news, we just sold our couch, dresser, book shelves, table and now have basically nothing in our apartment. We leave for seattle in about two weeks. I am soo excited to be done with school and actually have a real summer.

Jenna + Trevor

2010-06-20T17:48:00.001-07:00

This weekend some friends and I drove up to Idaho to see two of our friends get married. We've pretty much known Jenna and Trevor would get married since freshman year so this wedding has been long anticipated. It was pretty much an all day celebration from the ceremony to the reception and all of it was amazing. Jenna looked gorgeous as always and you could easily tell how happy she and trevor were to finally be married (after 5 years of dating). I could go on and on about how cute, romantic, fun, heartwarming, and beautiful the whole day was, but you kind of had to be there. Congrats Jenna and Trevor!

In other news, today I started my last semester of college! I was kind of dreading this day because I knew that once I started my senior seminar class, I would be stressed out for the next seven weeks. It's going to be a lot of work, but I just need to get it over with and do a good job so I can graduate. Unfortunately, most of my summer will spent in the library instead of the sun.

2010-06-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

Tickets are officially booked: We are going to Europe for 2 1/2 weeks on September 1st. Now I have something to get me through this next summer semester...I'm so excited!

Moab

2010-05-31T15:00:00.001-07:00

For Memorial day weekend, Joey and I went camping in Moab with our friends, Nick and Kim. I've been wanting to go to southern utah for a while so this was the perfect opportunity. We had some minor mishaps, like forgetting our sleeping bags and chairs that we had picked up 5 minutes before we left, some strong winds blowing our settlers of catan board game all over the campsite, and a mountain biking crash, but overall we had SO much fun!

It was fun to be out camping. We aren't the most experienced campers but I love sleeping outside and sitting around the fire under the stars.

We did the Delicate Arch trail and it was so cool! This is the arch that is on all the utah license plates and I've always wanted to see it. The hike wasn't too bad, three miles round trip and it wasn't too hot outside. Definitely worth it!

You can barely see them, but Joey and Nick trekked up this little mountain.

Kim, Nick, and Joey on the way down from the arch.

We went river rafting also. There was really only one rapid that was pretty good (and scary for me), but it was nice to look at the scenery on the way down.

These pictures are from Dead Horse point. Kim and I went there when Joey and Nick went mountain biking. The pictures don't do it justice, the views were amazing.

Colorado River

2010-05-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it seems like the best vacations are the short ones since you do so much during the days that you are there and don't waste a single hour. We had so much fun in hawaii and we were so sad to leave. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and had to go straight to the triathlon check in to do orientation and get our numbers. We then went to hotel (really cool hotel- Hotel Renew- I recommend it) and everyone was there; my sisters, PJ, my parents, and our family friends the Rosensheins. We went to bed early that night since we had to wake up at 3:30 am to eat breakfast since we had to check in at the triathlon at 5 am. There is this cool 24 hour restaurant in Honolulu called mac 24/7 and we decided to get a quick breakfast there. Surprisingly there were quite a few people there for 4 am, but all of them were people who had not gone to bed that night. The table right next to us had a few "rookies" as the manager called them after one guy passed out while his friends took pictures of him and then woke up to throw up in a trash can 5 feet away from our table. The food was good but it was quite an interesting experience.

This is Joey after he finished his race. He did it under three hours and did really well for the swim of course, he was in the top 15 coming out of the water. Which is pretty impressive considering the insanely ripped guys he was racing against. I think he is ready to do another one!

Elizabeth finishing up her sprint triathlon.

My Dad finishing up his olympic triathlon. Pretty impressive. He said he wasn't even tired after.

PJ finishing up his duathlon (run, bike, run).

I don't have any pictures of me for my swim, but that's probably a good thing since you don't look too attractive with a swimming cap and goggles on. The swim went really well though, I didn't come close to drowning haha. When I saw the distance I had to swim it looked really far, but my training actually worked and I swam it with no problem. The water was really murky though and everyone kept running into me, it was pretty annoying. I guess next time I will just have to train to be ahead of the pack. We all had succesful races and it was really fun that my whole family did at least some part of the race. I think it has become a tradition now and we will be back next year. My plan is to do the sprint triathlon and actually train for it this time!

On Sunday we went up to the North Shore to stay with Joey's parents. It was so nice to be back there, I hadn't been in almost a year. On Monday we took my family to Laie point to jump off.

There was a lot of hesitation on everyone's part. Except mine, I knew without a doubt I didn't want to. I'm such a wimp.

Everyone ended up jumping off (except my parents and me). Supposedly they all hit the bottom.

Elizabeth needed a lot of encouragement haha, but she ended up going for it. They all said they would never do it again.

I miss Hawaii! This used to be the view from my front yard. We spent the next few days snorkeling, surfing (disastrous), swimming, getting a massage, and just spending time with family. I hope we will be back soon!

oh and p.s. we made it back in time for my midterm, thank goodness. Whether I had studied for it was a different matter.

hawaii time

2010-05-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

We are headed for hawaii tomorrow, woohoo!! Wish us luck on our triathlon (especially Joey, he is doing the olympic and I'm worried he may not make it out alive). And please cross your fingers that our plane will not be delayed on our way back to provo so that I don't miss my midterm that is at 9 AM, when our flight gets in at 7:30 AM...I think hawaii is worth risking my grade though, right?

Bummed

2010-04-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

Today Joey and I were planning on road trippin' down to California to see his family and my sister. We packed up the car and Joey was going to pick me up right at 3 when I finished my class. I had to have a quick meeting with an adviser first because I wanted to confirm that I was on track to graduate this August. Turns out, I was not on track, not even close. 2o credits off track to be exact. I immediately assumed that would mean another semester at BYU, but my adviser seemed to be pushing the idea of getting it done by August and after talking to my parents, I decided that's what I'm going to do. 11 credits this spring, 9 this summer - including my capstone :/ I realized that this would mean no road trip for me since I probably would have classes on friday and monday and lots and lots of homework. We decided Joey should still go since he has no school until wednesday so we booked a plane ticket instead and now he is currently in california and I am stuck in provo for the weekend, where it is s n o w i n g. No big deal. But this place kind of sucks. Anyway, I'm blogging to pass the time...

This is a super impressive drawing (in my opinion) that Joey did for his drawing class. I could never do that. It looks cooler in person too.

This looks really really gross but it's not. Well, it kind of is. One morning like two months ago, I woke up to a weird cooking smell. I walk into the kitchen and sure enough, the oven is on. This is what I found inside. A french bread pizza. Joey is still working on his cooking skills. But really he was just too distracted doing this...

I try to tell him that video games never lead to anything good. He could of burnt our apartment complex down (I think), but he still plays them. Usually there are like 4 coke bottles next to him as well, I must have caught him on a healthy day.

Blame it on the Bow Tie

2010-04-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

This morning after I woke Joey up he told me he didn't want to go to church today because he had a feeling that we would be asked to speak in church. I told him he was ridiculous and plus, he had just bought a new bow tie the day before and he was excited to debut it. Of course, tonight we got a call asking us to speak in church next week. I blame it on the bow tie. I've somehow managed to avoid speaking in church for the last four years at BYU and I think I've perfected the art of flying under the radar. The bishop must have seen the bow tie and thought "hm what a smart looking young man, we should probably ask him and his wife to speak." If only he knew the bow tie has little crabs on it. Anyway, our topic is "bridle your passions." Incidentally, I HATE public speaking, with a passion. It's not the easiest topic, if anyone knows of any talks or books that might help us out please let us know.

Spring, hopefully

2010-03-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that it will snow tomorrow just to prove the title of my post wrong, but today I sat outside, in the sun, and didn't freeze to death. That means spring is right around the corner and I couldn't be more excited. Well, actually, the day that I am most excited for is April 21...the last day of finals for this semester. It's been a rough one, and these next few weeks are going to be miserable. My plans for this weekend: library, library, and hopefully Alice in wonderland.

On the brighter side of life...today I found out that the paper my I submitted to the history department competition won! Well it won for the Women's History category, which means there is check in the mail for 150 bucks and Joey and I get to go to this history awards banquet next week. I've never really won anything before, my Mom was so shocked that I had even entered myself into a competition. But it was a really nice surprise and motivator in the midst of writing another research paper.
Things have been good for Joey too...he's on spring break. Yeah, UVU has a spring break, crazy right? He's also been chillin with celebs...

Uh Oh...

2010-03-05T14:36:00.000-08:00

Last May when I was in hawaii, some of my family came out to compete in the Honolulu triathlon. I was also supposed to compete, but due to laziness and lack of a decent gym in laie, I never actually trained and wimped out at the last minute. This year will be different though. My family is going back to hawaii in may to compete again, and I've got a chance to redeem myself. I'm actually only doing a relay with my sister and mom, which means all I have to train for is a 750 meter swim. Which i found out today is 30 laps in the pool!! After discovering that, I finally dragged myself to the gym to see how out of shape I was. After four laps, my arms burned and I could barely breathe. After probably 45 minutes, I had swam 30 laps, but with many breaks. I'm determined to train this time though, mostly because if I don't, I will probably end up like this...

Drowned.

Wish me luck in training...

Park City

2010-03-01T12:41:00.000-08:00

This last weekend Joey and I met my family at Park City for a ski trip. It was really fun to have my whole family come out to Utah, even though we didn't end up having time to come to Provo and show them our apartment. I also don't have any pictures, except for this one I took with my phone, since my camera is missing its charger. Maybe I will upload more pics if my Dad emails to them but maybe not. The condo we stayed at was really cool, it was only a 2 minute walk to the chairlift and we had our own hot tub. I would say the weekend was a success, since Joey didn't hurt himself skiing for the first time in who knows how long. He did sprain his thumb but that was minor and he was way better at skiing than me by the end of the weekend. It was funny to see him fall a bunch on the first run though. We also went snowmobiling, ice skating, went to a delicious restaurant on main street, and had our cousins over for a mexican feast. It was good to get away for the weekend, but now it's back to school and endless homework.

Wedding Part III: Family

2010-01-30T13:32:00.000-08:00

Just the siblings. We all live in different states and I miss them!

In Seattle, we don't have many relatives nearby. We knew that having a wedding 3 days before Christmas would mean less relatives could come, so we were really happy that my Aunt Sharon and Uncles Brent, Scott, and Steve could make it.

My sister Elizabeth

Younger sister Alexis.

Original Gibsons

Plus spouses and babies- I love how families grow!

Of course, none of this would have been possible without our parents- love you guys!

Thank you to everyone who came to our wedding!

Wedding Part. II

2010-01-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

These are the formal pictures of the wedding party at the temple. It was freezing outside, literally. I handled it pretty well, probably just the excitement of everything, but I could tell everyone else was suffering. We actually lucked out with weather, it could have been way worse. It only sprinkled lightly and was pretty chilly, but at least it wasn't pouring!

We thought it would be a cute idea to get umbrellas for the pictures since we knew rain was a possibility. We ended up renting them from Bella Umbrella and I think they turned out really cute.

My bridesmaids were the best models, you can't even tell that they are miserably cold.

I love the ones of the groomsmen on the rainy street, looks pretty cool I think.

Wedding Pictures part. I

2010-01-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was our one month anniversary so I figured I better start blogging about the wedding before I forget everything. I'm going to post the pictures in segments and only post my favorites because there are tons of pictures and a lot of them are on facebook anyway. My photographer was kali leenstra and she got amazing shots. I love all the wedding pictures and I can't wait to order some prints and frame them. Anyway, these pictures are just some candids from the temple.

I love this pictures because of how hilarious Joey looks, but also because I think it captures the awkwardness of the moment perfectly. When you first walk out of the temple, everyone is just standing there, snapping pictures, and we didn't know what to do except laugh uncomfortably.

In every bouquet shot, I'm doing this weird thing with my fingers. The bottom of the bouquet was dripping wet, so I guess I was trying to avoid getting my fingers wet? I don't know, but I wish I had realized it at the time so they didn't look so funny. I loved all the flowers though, so gorgeous. They were done by Wendy at Ravenna Bloom.

Love this one.

This one always makes me laugh. I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever.

The groomsmen all looking very happy.

Honeymoon

2010-01-10T15:42:00.000-08:00

This may be backwards but I'm going to post pictures of the honeymoon first since we don't have the CD of the wedding pictures yet. Plus anyone who reads this was probably at the wedding and has seen all the pictures already. After the wedding, Joey and I spent a few days in Seattle, staying at the amazing Four Seasons hotel so that we could be with our families for Christmas. We were lucky this year because we were able to spend Christmas with both of our families. It was so fun and I'm really happy we stuck around in Seattle so that we could spend more time with them.

For our wedding present, my siblings sent us on our honeymoon. The day after Christmas we were off to Palm Springs for a week in the sun.

Joey at the airport reading from his Kindle that he got for Christmas.

On our way to Palm Springs. Isn't Mt. Rainier gorgeous? Luckily, it was sunny and clear for a few days in Seattle while everyone was there. Seattle isn't always rainy.

We tried to go up the tram where apparently you can reach snow. We drove 30 minutes to get there, parked (in the gray squirrel lot), got on the bus to take us to the tram, and then the driver informed us there would be a 2.5 hour wait to even get on the tram. We quickly disembarked and went to see Avatar instead.

We went "hiking" at Joshua Tree. I'd never been there before, but Joey used to go camping and rock climbing there when he was younger. It took about two hours to drive through the whole park and there were some really cool rock formations. We tried to go on a short 2 mile hike, but somehow took a wrong turn and ended up in an open desert with no rocks in sight. Once we saw the freeway, we realized we missed the trail head.

I wasn't too disappointed since I didn't exactly wear hiking boots. Joey was shocked when I told him that I only brought flip flops, but when we told this story to my parents, they were not as surprised. They've been on enough trips with me to know that I don't always dress appropriately for the day's activities. I think Joey bugged me enough about it that it won't happen again though.

Another day we went to the Living Desert Zoo.

The giraffes were definitely my favorite, I have like 20 pictures of them. What I don't have pictures of is us lounging by the pool in the hot desert sun...and that's because it never happened. It ended up being a little colder than I had hoped. But we still managed to enjoy ourselves with our couples massage, dinner at Arnold Palmers, and day trip to visit some friends and family in orange county. Overall it was a really nice and relaxing week, just what we needed. Thanks to my siblings who made all of this possible!

We're Back!!

2010-01-02T21:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday joey and I got back from our honeymoon in Palm Springs and tomorrow we leave Seattle to settle down in Provo. These last two weeks have been such a whirlwind. I can't believe everything is over! The wedding was better than I ever could have imagined and I loved being with so many friends and family. I am so so grateful to my family, joey's family, and everyone who came from out of town to celebrate with us.

There are way too many things to blog about right now, but I will definitely cover everything when I have the time. We don't have any of the professional pics yet, but if you want a sneak peak go to

kalileenstraphoto.com/blog

Anyway, happy new year! I haven't even had time to think of any resolutions...

Joey is 23

2009-12-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

Since it is Joey's birthday, that means I get to embarrass him by posting old photobooth pictures from my computer.

I think he was trying to go for super hero mask

Happy Joey

Happy Birthday Joey! I love you and can't wait to see you in 10 days!

Disclaimer: Contrary to what it appears, Joey is not naked in these pictures. He just doesn't wear shirts in hawaii.

Bridal Shower

2009-11-21T15:49:00.000-08:00

So last month I went home for a little wedding planning and my bridal shower. The reason I've waited so long to talk about this is because my mom still hasn't sent me the pictures she took from it. Since she is already so busy planning other aspects of the wedding, I'll just post the pics that I do have...

Apparently this is some bridal shower tradition to put all the bows from my presents together to make a bouquet. I think I'm supposed to bring it to the rehearsal dinner, not really sure though. It was really cute anyway!

Me with my new knife set

I'm so grateful to the women in my home ward for putting this together for me. They are so sweet and generous! Most of them have been my young womens leaders, sunday school teachers, and friends since I was little. It was a perfect party and I had such a good time!

Now back to the present, tomorrow will be exactly one month from the big day! Crazy how fast time is going!

Halloween

2009-11-01T20:36:00.001-08:00

This Halloween, Nicole and I decided to be ballerinas. Undead ballerinas that is.

Pretty creepy right?

Joey's Halloween was spent doing the following...

Soon Joey will no longer be able to surf every day and will have to give up the warm Hawaii weather for the miserable cold here in Utah. Can't wait!

51 days left

Random

2009-10-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend I'm going home for my bridal shower. Should be fun!

Book Worm

2009-10-06T20:46:00.001-07:00

I love reading. Fortunately, I've discovered that's a good thing for a history major. I never knew history could be such a workout, but climbing up and down those five stories of the BYU library searching for books has certainly left me winded more than a few times. The results have begun to pile up on my desk...

When I'm not busy reading from that huge pile of books, I am usually reading something else, whether it be the new york times online (btw, I read the grossest article about ground beef and ecoli a few days ago and have vowed to never eat ground beef again), the Daily Universe at BYU (love the opinion section), or for mine and Joey's book club (just finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance--not my favorite).

Today, Nicole and I were trying to kill some time before class and we began to browse the book store. We ran across this book, "Don't Swallow Your Gum!: Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health."

It basically shatters every myth that is commonly believed. For example, I was happy to learn that you DO NOT swallow eight spiders a year. Thank goodness. I also learned that sugar doesn't make kids hyper. And did you know, turkey doesn't make you any more sleepy than chicken? We read through the whole book and Nicole ended up being so distracted that she missed class. Oh well, I still think she got a good education so it was worth it. If you are ever at a bookstore, go skim through this book!

Last day of summer?

2009-09-29T17:01:00.001-07:00

Today may be the last warm summery day in Provo. It is a slippery slope from here on it seems. For the past month, I have enjoyed sunny, dry, eighty degree weather almost every day here in Utah. The forecast has been predicting that tomorrow will be closer to the fifties, so I've been trying to take advantage of the sun while it is still here. This weekend I used my bike for the first time in a year. Some friends and I went on a little ride around Provo to the Mexican market, where I had an unfortunate encounter with a wasp that flew up my shirt (it didn't sting me, but that was only because of my lighting fast reaction that may have given the local mexicans an unexpected show). Anyway, moving on, the fall has been gorgeous here, and I have a few pics to prove it!

Friends in Midway

The leaves were so pretty!

One month down, three more to go

2009-09-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

The wedding is exactly three months away from today! I don't know why everyone says that you need at least a year to plan a wedding. While it is a little bit stressful to plan a wedding and attend school at the same time, everything seems to be coming together nicely. We have our venue, photographer, florist, DJ, and most importantly, the dress. As you saw in our Save the Date video, the big day is 12/22/2009. In case you forget that, here is our wedding webiste...

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/JohannaGoodrich&JosephGibson

There you will find directions to the reception, where we are registered, hotel suggestions, and possibly more if I get around to it. I'm so excited for the wedding and hope these next three months will go by fast!

Happy Birthday Nicole

2009-09-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

Nicole turns 21 today ! She is one of my bridesmaids and, of course, one of my bestest friends. She was the first friend I made my freshmen year at college, and we've been practically inseparable ever since (except for my year in Hawaii, when I missed her dearly).

Happy Birthday Nicole!

Save the Date!

2009-09-03T19:25:00.001-07:00

Instead of sending out a traditional save the date card, we thought it would be fun to make video. Thanks to my Dad for putting this together!

Engaged!

2009-09-02T17:54:00.000-07:00

Now that Joey and I have been engaged for almost three weeks, it has become clear that the next step on our way to marriage is creating a joint blog, or so we've been told. So welcome to our blog, where you will be able to stay up-to-date on our semi-exciting and interesting lives. Right now I am in Provo, attending BYU while Joey is in Hawaii going to school. We are getting married December 22nd, in the Seattle Temple, with a reception at Salty's on Alki to follow. Since we will most likely not be seeing each other until December, this blog is probably going to be pretty boring until then, after which it will become only slightly boring. We will do our best to keep you entertained, but I'm not promising anything. Stay tuned for our save-the-date video and more details about the wedding!

Joey proposed message in a bottle style. Very cute and I was totally surprised. It would have been perfect if it weren't for an interfering child that tried to steal the bottle before I got to it.

111 Days left!!