Kansas City Adventures!

In August we were able to go to Kansas City to visit Jeremy's sister, Melanie and brother-in-law Ashwin. Jeremy's parents, grandparents, two aunts and cousin also made the trek. So it was a mini family reunion so to speak. Luckily for us, there was a high heat warning for the duration of time we were there. WOW, was it ever hot! But we still managed to have a really good time.

We visited the Hallmark museum where we saw how packaging ribbons are made and learned the history of a good hallmark card.



Watching old Hallmark commercials.



We also went to the Federal Reserve and learned all about money.



And of course we had to see the Yankees play the Royals while they were in town.



A foul ball was hit right towards us, we didn't get the ball but we did get some good pictures with it.




It was so hot at the game the number from the jersey Jeremy wore was marked in his t-shirt with sweat.



Other pics from the games...




My BFF April and her husband Ben were even able to come for a day and hang out with us. I didn't get any pictures with them though. We had fun window shopping at the Cabella's.



All in all we really liked our visit to the Midwest! It was really green and had tons of trees, which was a pleasant surprise. I thought it would be a lot of flat corn fields. I wish I had done a better job of taking pictures of our various activities but I didn't. Next time I guess!

Cooking Fun!

I hate cooking. I find it stressful. Jeremy hates eating quesadilla's and cold cereal for dinner every night so he ends up doing most the cooking around here. I tell myself he does it because he enjoys it, it makes me feel better for being such a bum. Here is his latest endeavor.

Homemade wings, wing sauce and blue cheese dressing.



Best wings we have had in a long time.

Did that just happen?

Sometimes at church I find myself asking, "did that just happen?" This week the gem came from testimony meeting when this was said:

"I'm so thankful that I didn't quit church when they did the realignment cause I was so mad, but I decided to go bowling and I got some strikes..."

Yep. That just happened.

That's not even the most memorable quote from this particular person. This is may favorite:

"I have had a really hard week because I just found out why I haven't had my menstrual cycle in five months...I'm menopausal...(followed by many tears, and said over the pulpit to the entire congregation).

Yep. That just happened.

Hiking Lake Blanche

On Saturday we decided to head up the canyon and hike the Lake Blanche trail. I was glad that Jeremy made this suggestion because we haven't been hiking at all this year and it was good to get out and enjoy the mountains. Plus, we will be hiking the Subway again this year in about a month and I needed to be reminded of how hard hiking can be. This hike kicked my trash!!! I was SO sore on Sunday. Jeremy wore huge blisters into his heals and didn't complain about it once on the hike. If that had been me I would have sat on the trail and cried and demanded to be carried down the hill. Luckily he didn't do that!

We started hiking around 8 and I was glad we got up early to beat the heat because on the way down the mountain it was pretty hot and I was glad we weren't hiking uphill. The lake was beautiful, as were the mountain views. We had lunch at the top and then hiked down. It was really nice because we were done around 1 and still had the rest of the day to relax. It was a great Saturday activity.

Here are the pics:

A1A - Beachfront Avenue!!!

We recently returned from a fun getaway to Sunny Florida. We decided we needed to use up all of our free flights before Jer goes back to school so we decided to go visit family and the first trip was to Florida to visit my sister Janene and her cute family. We had a blast but were very happy to return to Utah and be out of the humidity. It was HOT in Florida. We decided that we were not built to live in that kind of heat and humidity. It was ridiculous. It is not natural to sweat that much. Just not natural.

We arrived late on a Thursday night, and because we used free flights we had to fly separately. By the time Jer arrived at our hotel in Orlando we were both famished but it was almost midnight. Luckily the front desk had a menu for a late night pizza place that would deliver and so we ordered some pizza. I don't know if it was because we were so hungry or what, but it tasted like some of the best pizza we had ever had. I ate like four pieces in about four minutes and then promptly fell asleep. Later that night I was not enjoying the pizza as much....HAHAA!

Janene and her family drove to Orlando on Friday morning and picked us up (in their swagger wagon) at our hotel to head to Disney's Blizzard Beach. We had a great time. I am so glad we decided to do a water park and not a regular park because I think I would have died of heat exhaustion. Oh course, because it was a vacation for me we had about an hour-long downpour of rain but it didn't really effect us because it was still HOT! I can't go on vacation without at least one rain storm. We had an absolute blast hanging out with Leah, Corban and Bricey at the park.



It was so much more fun having kids to play with. And those kids are little water rats, they are way more brave than I ever was or even am when it comes to those water rides.

Here are some pics from Blizzard Beach (had to steal nearly all photos from my sister)







After our fun day in Orlando we drove back to Gainesville to stay with my sister. On Saturday we headed to Crescent Beach for a fun beach day.





Jer was a great sport and let us bury him. He was even a good sport when I dropped a completely full bucket of heavy wet sand on his leg while he was trapped.

On Sunday we just spent the day relaxing in Gainesville and then on Monday we headed back to Orlando to do some outlet shopping before we were nearly cooked to death and had to go to the hotel pool to cool off. The highlight of the Orlando shopping trip was that I really wanted to eat lunch at Margarittaville because they have the most amazing nachos. I had them when I went to Hawaii and I love them and have wanted to go back ever since. Little did we know you had to park at Universal in order to get to the restaurant and before we knew it we were in the line of cars entering the park and had to pay $14 to park! So yes, we paid $14 to eat nachos plus the price of the actual nachos...pathetic I know.

Funny phrases from the trip:
1. Me to Jeremy on the drive home from the beach after Corban had a bit of a melt down: "Does this trip make you want to have kids more or less?" Jer: "Based on this car ride...less."
2. Corban to Jeremy, "Hey, Jared!"
3. We were all racing on a toboggan ride at the water park but Leah and Corban always finished last because they don't weigh as much and couldn't go as fast so we told them to pull up on the mat so they wouldn't slow down. As soon as the race finished I jumped up and ran back to where Leah and Corban had finished and Leah was so mad she said, "I pulled up just like you told me! Maybe this is as far as kids are supposed to go?" Me: "Yep that's as far as kids are supposed to go!"
4. Corban to Jeremy, "Hey Josh!"
5. Corban after Jer and I just got out of bed for the morning, "I heard Aunt Denae do a stinky in the room."
6. Corban to Jeremy, "Hey Jared!"
7. Leah talking about her upcoming school year and having to wear school uniforms, "they look like boy shirts! I can't have any sparkles or anything! I hate them."
8. Corban to his Primary class: "The best thing that happened all week was having Aunt Denae and Uncle Jeremy (got the name right) come to visit."

All in all we had a great time and realized once again that my niece and nephews are by far the cutest kids in the world!

Random Thoughts and Updates

I was driving home from work today and remembered that 1. I have a blog, and 2. I'm not very good at updating it regularly. So I decided I would just do one random update with things we've been doing or random thoughts.

Fourth of July - For the second year in a row Jeremy and I went north for the fourth and spent the long weekend with his family in Soda Springs. The fourth of July is THE holiday in Soda Springs. Anyone who is Anyone in Soda can be found cruising the town during the patriotic festivities. On Saturday the city hosted a co-ed softball tournament. Some of Jeremy's high school friends put together a team and invited us to play. I was very nervous about this because I am NOT good at softball, however, I am VERY competitive and so sometimes those two things don't mix. Our team wasn't the greatest and we lost our first two games and were out of the competition but we did have a lot of fun. Jeremy was the best player on our team and had tons of good hits and even a home run. I was just happy that I didn't strike out.

On Monday we attended the parade where we were given these.





Now really, what is more American than an American flag made in China? My answer is nothing! This represents America perfectly. Why would we spend time making a silly cheap flag, when we can simply outsource it to a country that can mass produce it at a much cheaper cost? So I proudly waved my Chinese born American Flag and thoroughly enjoyed the parade. Needless to say we enjoyed our time in Soda.

Basketball - Jeremy and I have recently been pretty obsessed with the NBA's free agency circus. I cannot believe how ridiculous and out of control it has gotten. It has really made me start to hate professional sports. However, I have LOVED the Jazz since I was little and cannot abandon them so we continue to watch and speculate with everyone else. I have a co-worker who grew up in Cleveland and he is OBSESSED with sports, particularly Cleveland sports teams, even more particularly the Cavs and Lebron James. Needless to say, he was absolutely crushed when Lebron left. In hopes of helping him feel better, my co-workers and I prepared a little gift.











And finally to finish off my random post I have a story about my lunch today. Jeremy prepares our lunches everyday because I am SUPER slow at getting ready in the mornings. Today I was at lunch enjoying my nice sandwich with my co-workers when I bit into something that tasted kind of funny. Here is what I found:

The Great White North

Instead of heading south for the Memorial Day weekend where blue skies, warm weather, and sandy beaches were calling our names we decided to head north. Not North to the frozen tundra of Soda Springs or even more north to Rexburg where Denae and my paths may or may not have crossed on the romantic campus of BYU-Idaho. We went way north to the Great White North. We decided we wanted to take a road trip to visit Denae's grandmother who hasn't been feeling well lately and had been in and out of the hospital. She had made the decision to sell her house and move into an assisted living center where she could get more help with the daily tasks of life.

Here is a picture of her enjoying all of her family's company.

This was my first time venturing into Canadia and I was very much up for the task. I was unable to take Friday off of work because both my co-workers had made prior plans to take off for the weekend. We were able to leave SLC around 3 and made it to Heber to pick up Denae's mom and sister and were on the road by 4:30. Luckily we didn't have to go the full 12 hours to Cardston that night. Denae's OCD tendencies took over the week before and she had to play around with the "negotiator". Luckily she got us a sweet deal at the Shilo Inn in Helena, MT.

As a collective body, the closeness of being trapped in the car for so long brought us together, we decided to put on an audio book for the long drive ahead of us. We all agreed on "The Hunger Games" even though 50% of the car had already read the book. I was a little worried about the whole audio book thing since I had never finished one in my entire life because I have ADD (not really, this is a serious condition and not to be made light of) and didn't know if I could drive and try to process the book at the same time. Turns out I could drive and listen to a book at the same time and it was AWESOME. At times I felt like I was the only one listening while everyone else was sleeping but the intensity and suspense of the book willed me to stay awake until we reached Helena.

According to Denae's mother and sister we were the "fun car". We didn't know that we were so much fun. Here is a highlight reel of a few things that made us so fun.

1. We came upon a truck that had some bicycles attached to some sort of bike rack/wanna be trailer on the back and Denae thought one of them was really loose and was going to fall off. So she decided she wanted to be a Good Samaritan and let them know. So I proceeded to speed up next to them so she could let them know. As we got next to them and I rolled down the window so Denae could gesture to them about the bikes, she freaked out and curled up in the fetal position and said that she couldn't do it and that she was too scared. 5 minutes later I look over and Denae is doing a weird combination of sign language, interpretive dancing, and seizure activity. I asked her what she was doing and she said not to worry about it. After minutes of prodding she finally told me that she was acting out in what she thought was her mind how she would have let that truck know that their bike was loose and was going to fall off eventually. It was very cute but we all decided that the bike was securely fastened and we didn't need to tell them anything.

2. We shared a few good laughs as we approached the Soda Springs exit when Denae's little sister Nikki asked her mom, "Where is Jeremy from, Soda Pop?". That was a good laugh.

3. We stopped at one of my all time favorite fast food restaurants that I only get to eat at when I leave the state of Utah and venture into Idaho, Jack-in-the-Box. Where their motto is, "No shirt, no shoes, no problem!". The kid in front of us didn't have shoes on and was walking around the restaurant with his bag of food like a homeless kid. I of course got my all time favorite tacos that are 2 for $.99. The are deep fried and look like they could survive a nuclear holocaust but they are tasty.

Here is a little teaser in case you were getting a hankering for cheap and delicious tacos.

So we fast forward to the part where we are entering Canada the next day. We made it safely to the Shilo, we were able to get a decent amount of rest and take advantage of the free continental breakfast that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

We were all able to successfully cross the border after showing our passports and telling them how much money in cash we had, how much alcohol, and how much tobacco we had on hand. Luckily we didn't have much of anything other than gas from the passenger side (I was driving). Just kidding, Denae would never do that. Let's just say if me and my brothers were in that car together we might not make it over the border for possessing a form of biological warfare.

We finally made it to Cardston, Alberta, Canada around 1pm. I decided that I had two objectives while in Canada other than helping Denae's family with the move and cleaning. First of all, I was going to find "poutine" and I was going to eat it. If any of you were wondering what poutine is according to wikipedia, Poutine (Quebec French pronunciation [putsɪn] (help·info)) is a dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curd, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients.

Please enjoy the mental feast you are about to experience.
















As far as I could tell there was really only 1 option in Cardston for me to find this wonderful dish, Dairy Queen. I was very happy to have found this little gem and was so proud of myself for accomplishing 1 of my goals not 30 mins into arriving in town. The second goal of mine was to find and eat some Ketchup flavored potato chips. I had heard about these for a while now and I was determined to at least try them. I found them at the local grocery store and they were delicious too.

If anyone knows Denae they know she has some Canadian pride in her blood. She loves to tell people that she is Canadian and on occasion that she is from Canada. She was very disappointed to learn that Canada is run by the Brits and she was determined to start a revolution for them to gain their independence. I guess we will just have to wait and see how that pans out and if she can get some followers.

We ended up having a great weekend. We were able to get most of the house cleaned up and either taken over to the care center, loaded into the u-haul, or in our respective cars. We were able to spend a lot of time relaxing in the front room and just talking and sharing stories. It was a good time had by all. Here are some more pictures of the weekend.

Here is Denae having trust issues and thinking that I would drop her while she was on the dolly.

Here is Reece and I taking apart the kitchen table.


The road trip back was a long one because we needed to do it all on Monday to make it back in time for work. I was not looking forward to the 12 hour drive but the highlight of the drive home was a little ray of hope I spotted while we were leaving Helena on the way up to Canada. This ray is one of my all time favorite places to eat, Buffalo Wild Wings.





And just like their slogan says, you just had to be there.