la mia vita bella

The Rest of 2011

2012-01-24T23:16:00.001-07:00

I just realized how lame it is that I had this very same "the rest of" post last year, too. But hey, I guess having to play catch-up is better than nothing. This post is quite the eclectic mix of events, so I'll start from the beginning:

The Rest of Fall

Fall is one of my favorite times of year to go flying. Seeing all of the colors from the air is so amazing. Nick's mom was up for the weekend, so we all got to go on a little sightseeing trip. We also got to take Jason, Nick's little "mentee." It was his first time in a plane and he had so much fun. Thanks to Aaron for taking all of us!

My long-time friend, Kirsten, got married! I've known Kirsten since I can first remember. She and my brother, Aaron, met in kindergarten and our families have been friends ever since. Her wedding was in mid-October and the weather was absolutely incredible. Congrats to her and Nurivan!

Nick has been loving his time at Total Care Dental. His schedule was so insane last semester, but he loved being at work every day. He and Dr. Babcock apparently have very similar styles -- yes, the purples shirts were totally unplanned. Hilarious.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Colorado this year and it was fun to have Tyler and Jessica there with us, too. We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner and a relaxing weekend shopping and going to the movies.

We loved getting to spend time with these little munchkins. They have been growing up so fast! And yes, Nick is styling Adrienne's hair in that picture. Haha.

And we can't forget little Charlie! Nick and I want a dog soooo bad. We love getting to be with our families because that means we get to be with dogs, too :)

Christmas

Even though our tree barely fits in our little apartment, we still love having all the decorations up. And it helps that Nick is a Christmas fanatic.

I went up to Logan the week after Thanksgiving to help my mom get all of her Christmas stuff us. Clearly just watching us put up the decorations was enough for Kona to get tuckered out. Haha.

Christmas in Logan was pretty low-key this year. Luckily there was at least a little more snow on the ground than there was in Provo. Hopefully next year Mother Nature will cooperate with the holiday spirit!

Christmas Dinner

Nick was very particular about our gift wrap this year. We had to make a special trip to Tai Pan before we headed up to Logan just to get it. I can't complain though -- wrapping presents is one of my favorite parts of Christmas!

All of us got spoiled this year. You wouldn't suspect it, but my dad is quite the shopper. He brought back lots of loot for us from his overseas trips. My parent's surprised Nick with a new guitar, and Nick surprised me with an iPad! It's fun to have a new addition to our Mac family.

Here are my cute parents with their stash.

Casey and Dianna's Wedding

Nick's brother, Casey, got married on Dec. 30th in the Logan Temple. He and Dianna met in D.C. but ironically her parents live right down the street from mine! We are so happy for both of them and excited to have Dianna in our family!

We loved getting to see Casey's boys, too. They are such little gentlemen. Little Ammon even asked me to dance at the wedding dinner. So cute.

Brian Head for New Years

We were so excited that we could make it to Brian Head this year to see our friends! We met the Yagers and the Fields at Emily's family condo in Brian Head and spent the New Years weekend there. It had been about a year since we had see them, and it was so fun to be together again. Sadly, we were missing Jo and Aaron, but hopefully one day all 8 of us can have a reunion!

(our New Years Eve bash was more of a pajama party)

Every New Year's Eve, Brian Head Resort puts on an awesome light/fireworks show. I had never seen anything like it before and it was so fun. All of the resort employees ride up the ski lifts with bright flares and then ski down the mountain as they put on a firework show. Such a fun way to kick off New Years eve.

It was also the third anniversary of our engagement!

We had been to Brian Head in the summertime before, but it's amazing to see the red rock in the snow. This lookout point was beautiful!

We're already looking forward to next year. Thanks to Kiel and Emily for having us!

Life Lately

2011-10-02T21:20:00.000-06:00

Well, we're back full-force into the school year - at least Nick is at least :) I have to admit, I haven't missed homework one bit so far. This is a super random posts with jumbled pictures we've taken between our camera and phones... sorry in advance for the iPhone pics.

Between both of our jobs and Nick's night classes, we usually just count on seeing each other on the weekends. Nick is a trooper though -- I don't now how he lives on so little sleep!

But the good news is that Nick absolutely loves work. Every day I get to hear crazy stories about mouth surgeries -- these aren't just cavities and root canals I'm talking about, either. The dentist he works for does a lot of cosmetic dentistry and mouth restorations, so Nick is getting a lot of hands-on experience with really intense surgeries. We're so grateful he has this job because he gets to learn so much before he actually goes to dental school.

We also love the dentists he works for and their office staff -- such great people. They had a 10-year anniversary luau party for their practice at the beginning of the month:

And speaking of jobs... I got a new one! I've been working at Epic Marketing, a full-service marketing agency in Draper for about three weeks now. I'm working as an Internet marketing specialist/account coordinator and I really love it so far. My work also had a bbq/get together a couple weeks ago and it was fun to meet the families with everyone I work with at the office. It was the day of the BYU v. U of U game, so we had a little office rivalry going on, as you can see from everyone's outfits.

And on a side note, I got this very expensive piece of paper in the mail a few weeks ago -- so I guess that means I'm really an official graduate now!

A few other random events:

Nick's good friend growing up was in SLC with his engineering firm working for the Dew Tour. He was actually the one in charge of designing/building the motocross track and was able to get us VIP passes to one of the motocross events. I had never seen motocross live and it was actually pretty amazing. Scottie and Aaron tagged along with us and loved that we got passes to the VIP booth for the event.

The other cool part about the VIP booth is that we were chatting with Pink (the singer) and didn't really even realize it at first -- I guess her husband was on of the motocross racers. Nick snapped this pic of her after we realized who it was. Haha.

It was really fun to meet Eric for the first time -- I always hear childhood stories from Nick about all of his good friends growing up. We're excited that he'll be back this winter for the Dew Winter Tour!

We also went up to Idaho Falls for our nephew's baptism. We hadn't seen these little guys since our wedding so we were excited to get a chance to see them -- they've grown up so much over the past couple years! And this was the first picture Nick's mom has had with "her boys" in quite a while, too.

Last weekend I got to go to the General Relief Society meeting with some good friends in my ward. It was my first time every going to the RS Broadcast and it was so great -- I especially loved President Uchtdorf's talk. It was such a perfect day outside, too.

The weather this weekend was also incredible, so in between Saturday conference sessions we drove the Alpine Loop, which is one of our favorite things about fall. The leaves were incredible -- pictures never do them justice!

I wish this season would stay around a little longer each year!

Family Reunion in Kona

2011-09-04T22:41:00.000-06:00

Yep, the Gerszewski family is finally at the stage where we require family reunions to get us altogether in one place. With Marissa and Dan across the country for medical school, we don't get to see them near enough as we'd like to. In fact, our entire family hadn't been together since my wedding back in 2009! We were so excited to find out that there was a week this summer where all of our schedules aligned and we could plan a family trip. And, of course, we were even more excited when we convinced my dad that Kona would be the perfect place for it.

My dad and brother are involved with a partnership in two Kona vacation homes about five minutes from downtown. We could actually even see the temple steeple from the backyard! It was so fun for all of us to be in the same house for the week, and not all in separate hotel rooms.

The house we stayed in had amazing views and we got to enjoy the sunset every night at the dinner table. Having the pool right outside was great too!

It was our first time to the big island -- it is so different than the typical "tropical" Hawaiian islands we're more familiar with, but it was beautiful nonetheless. What's crazy is that you literally can see almost every climate just by driving around the island. If it were a different time of year, we probably would have seen snow at the top of the mountains, but we did get quite the climate tour.

There's everything from miles and miles of lava fields, to barren desert land (it seriously looked like the middle of Wyoming!) -- and an hour drive later we saw beautiful tropical beaches and seaside cliffs. It was pretty incredible.

We loved seeing the waterfalls, too. The fist one we visited, Akaka Falls, was probably one of the tallest I've seen... and so loud, too! This picture probably only captures about half of it - I think it was about 400 feet tall.

And during our second stop at Rainbow Falls, three crazy boys, along with dad, decided to take the trail to the top. The falls looked so much bigger with them standing at the top! Crazy boys.

On our tour of the island we also stopped at the Volcano National Park. Luckily we got there right at dusk so we could still see some of the crater -- I'm surprised this picture even turned out with how dark it was. Oh, and it was freezing, too! Hence the family huddle.

We also got to walk through a lava tube, which was really fascinating. We didn't really get to see any volcanoes in action, but I guess that will give us a reason to come back eventually :)

We also stopped at what is called the Place of Refuge to see some old Hawaiian temples and ruins. We learned that the island natives used to have a really specific class system with strict rules about mixing with royalty, priests, men and women, etc - and breaking these rules usually resulted in death. However, if people could make it to the Place of Refuge, they were cleared of their so-called crime. Pretty interesting.

And while we were there, we came across these two gems. I mean, have you EVER seen anything like them? We probably stood there laughing for a good ten minutes. I now get that they're made to be lava rock/ beach-friendly, but wow. These things look like they belong on the moon. Haha.

And now to one of my favorite parts of the trip -- snorkeling with manta rays! Ironically Nick and I had seen something about this on the travel channel several months ago and were so fascinated by it. Apparently Kona is the only place in the world where you're able to these creatures -- mostly because they've been conditioned to show up to the dive site almost every night. For 20 or so years, people have been putting lights in the water near the coast where there is a high concentration on plankton, which is what they feed on. So now that manta rays know that when they see light, they'll get to eat. It's not 100% guaranteed that they'll show up on any specific dive, but they claim to have about an 85% success rate, which is pretty incredible.

We got to wear these (not so) awesome looking wet suits because the dive happens after the sun goes down and it gets prett chilly. It's a pretty popular attraction, so there were a lot of boats with a lot of people out there. Luckily, my little brother had his waterproof video camera with him, otherwise it would be way too confusing to explain.

About half of the people there were actually scuba diving about 40 ft to the bottom of the ocean floor, and each one of them had a really bright light, which you can see in the video. All of the snorkelers were at the surface looking down at the divers, and the Manta rays and other fish were swimming in between. I felt like I was in an acquarium! About 30 seconds into the clip you can see a manta ray in the lefthand corner swimming in circles -- which is actually how they always swim when they're eating. We got to be out in the water for about 45 minutes and we all loved it! It was definitely a check off my bucket list.

Can't forget about the beach! This is what we spend most of our time doing. The water was incredible and there was some awesome snorkeling right by the beach.

Of course, the boys had to keep themselves busy by building sand creations. Giant pyramids have kind of become our beach tradition thanks to Aaron and his crafty skills.

And of course, we had a blast with these little munchkins. They grow up so fast when we only get to see them twice a year!

The hardest part of vacation is having to pack your suitcases to leave, and realizing you actually have to get back to real life! We had such a great time though and already can't wait for out next family trip.

Yep, We're Still Here

2011-08-23T22:45:00.001-06:00

I might have just taken my longest blogging hiatus to date. It's been a strangely short but busy summer for us, and I can't believe September is right around the corner! While I never like to see summer come to an end, this time around it's not as bittersweet because school won't be starting up again for me this fall! Here's a little recap of what we've been up to this summer:

-I "officially" finished my last internship credits for school and have been working full time since June

-Nick finished up spring classes in June and spent the next month and a half studying to take the DAT

-Nick also started a job as an assistant at a dental office in American Fork and he really loves it. We get to drive to work together now, which is great!

-We just got back from a trip to Hawaii with my family which was a perfect ending to our summer -- more pics to come from that

And now for some picture recaps:

My baby brother graduated high school and became an Eagle Scout. He started college at U of U this week -- I can't believe he's all grown up!

The Yagers came to visit! We hadn't seen them since January when the moved to Sacramento. It was so fun to be reunited again -- one day we'll get Chelsea and Nathan here so we can all be together again!

We met at The Pie in SLC for dinner

And then went to Kiel's mom's house to make s'mores. Check out these GIANT marshmallows!

We got a little snap happy with them...

I found a new... well, additional favorite treat location in Provo (in addition to Yogurtland, of course) - the Awful Waffle! They have the most authentic crepes I've been able to find in the valley. Nothing can really beat eating a crepe in Paris, but these taste pretty similar :)

We finally got to go boating this season! With our crazy summer last year, we didn't make it out on the lake, so we were so excited to be out in the sun this time around. We even brought my dog, Kona, for her first boating adventure!

I love my dog -- I wish I could keep her in Provo!

My best friend, Lindsey, got married! All five of us met at her family bridal shower and then did some shopping and got dinner in Salt Lake. We hadn't all been together for a long time and it was so fun to catch up. She was a beautiful bride!

My sister came to visit! Her little family drove out from Wisconsin for Dan's month-long break from medical school. She hadn't been to Provo since spring of 2008 and it was so fun to have her here.

We ate at one of my favorite restaurants in Provo, La Jolla Groves. The interior is so unique and the food is always delicious. We definitely don't get enough sister time living so far apart, and even though she was only here for a day, we loved it!

A Week in Paradise

2011-05-08T21:39:00.000-06:00

For the past year or so, Nick and I had been planning on taking a graduation trip this spring. However, when we found out he'd probably have to take spring classes to stay on track for graduation next year, we discovered he probably wouldn't be able to take a week off. So, being the amazing husband he is, he let me leave to paradise without for a week to take a little mommy-daughter trip to Oahu.

If you know my family at all, you know we have quite the travel bug. Throughout my life I've come to find that there is a HUGE difference between traveling and vacationing. My dad is definitely a traveler, and not a vacationer. This was the first trip my mom and I had taken together, and we both agreed we needed some serious real vacation time which included excessive time at the beach and at the pool.

Two sights I don't think I'll ever get sick of: Waikiki beach and a classic Waikiki sunset. Amazing!

I decided to try out Priceline.com to see what kind of deals I could find on hotel rooms. I was a little apprehensive because it was my first time ever using it, but we ended up getting an awesome room at the Marriott beach resort for a killer deal. The location was probably the best of all the Waikiki hotels I've stayed in -- and the pool was amazing too. I can definitely say I'll be using Priceline more often!

Loved all the vegetation in the courtyard and at the pool

I'm a huge fan of tropical flowers. Plumerias are my ultimate favorite!

What we did almost every day on the trip. We spent almost all day at the beach and then topped it off with Yogurtland. I kind of have an obsession with frozen yogurt.

There's definitely something to be said about Waikiki's nightlife. There's an endless selection of restaurants and more luxury shops than I've ever seen on one street. And, lucky us, we were there on the night of the "Spam Jam." Yep, Spam. Hawaiians love it. I don't think I've ever even tasted it. They blocked off the entire main street to set up the festival devoted to this processed meat. It was quite the event.

All the local restaurants had a food booth with all-Spam recipes. I wasn't daring enough to try any, but everyone on the street looked like they were loving them!

On Sunday we went up to Laie for a few hours to go to the Temple. They just finished renovating it a few months ago and the exterior looks amazing!

We also met up with our good friends, the Blau family, on Sunday. My parents have known them since before I was born and their family is some of our dearest friends. Seriously some of the nicest people I've even known. They have an amazing house in Kailua and were so nice to have us over on Sunday for dinner.

They even have a DOG! Little Reese was my friend for the weekend. I've been dog deprived lately.

Our plan was to fly home Sunday night, but as you know if you've ever flown standby, you're never quite sure if you'll make it on the flight or not. There had been a cancellation earlier so our scheduled flight filled up unexpectedly. The Blaus were so nice to let us spend the night and the following day at their house. I felt terrible for leaving my lonely husband at home longer than expected, but the extra day in Kailua was amazing.

I got to spend the whole day in the pool reading a book. I can't remember the last time I read a book for fun!

The week of R&R was just what I needed to jump back into real life for the upcoming summer!

I Graduated!

2011-05-04T20:28:00.000-06:00

It's kind of crazy to think that I've spent the majority of my life in a classroom. It's also kind of crazy to think about that era of my life coming to and end. Will I miss the homework, tests, and no sleep? Nope! But will I miss learning every day (even if I might feel forced at times)? Probably yes. But I guess the challenge in life is still continuing to learn day by day even when you're not in a classroom.


		The 17 year journey has been so worth it!

Luckily the weather held out for us on the day of commencement. It was such a cool sight to see thousands of graduates lined up to walk in to the Marriott Center.

A group of my PR friends

Loved this sight

Richard G. Scott spoke at commencement and gave us some pretty profound words of advice as we move on in life. Two of my favorites were to "always smile" and to "always do what is right, and let the consequence follow."

Some of my best PR friends -- Emily, Lauren, and Lauren. They made my time in the program so much fun. Each one of them is so talented. I know they'll have amazing careers and I'll miss not seeing them every day!

Friday's convocation was at the De Jong Concert Hall with only the communications students. It was fun to be able to sit with all of our friends and not in alphabetical order!

The Brimhall Building -- my home for the last three years or so. It's one of the oldest buildings on campus and has so much character. I'll miss it!

We lucked out with beautiful weather on Friday. Spring in Provo is so pretty with all of the tree blossoms and flowers. Next year Nick and I will switch places and he'll be in the graduation robe!

I was lucky to have most of my family there with me to share the day -- along with my cute mother-in-law too.

Even my aunt and uncle joined us for lunch! La Jolla Groves is definitely one of my new favorite restaurants in Provo. It was so great to be with everyone!

Though exhausting and extremely difficult at times, I wouldn't trade my college education for anything. It's taught me so much about not just my future career, but about myself, too. It's been a great 4 years!

Saying Goodbye

2011-04-18T23:06:00.000-06:00

I've come to realize over the past few weeks that having to say goodbye to friends in college is much worse than at high school graduation. I've made so many amazing friends in the PR program and after graduation, they'll all be spread out throughout the country. But while I'm sad to see everyone leave, I'm so excited to see where our careers will take us throughout the years.

I've loved being a part of the BYU PRSSA Chapter (Public Relations Student Society of America) over the past couple years. We have awesome faculty advisers who have all had great careers of their own before coming here to teach, not to mention really talented students as well. This year our chapter even got the Chapter of the Year award at the PRSSA National Conference -- it's given to only one school out of more than 300 that participate throughout the nation.

We had our year-end banquet last week and I finally got to take some pictures with everyone:

Some of the graduation seniors

With our lab director, Jeff and his wife. Jeff is the life of the party in our program -- we love him.

Emily and I met in one of our first classes in the program and have been friends ever since -- she's wonderful!

Emily and Michelle -- my fellow Project Hope girls!

Dr. Plowman, DKP, K-Plow -- one of my favorite professors and in his class where Emily and I worked on our first project together. He's had a great career in politics and as a public affairs officer with the Afghanistan with the U.S. Military. We've learned a lot from him!


We had another fun little year-end party with our PR friends at Spark organized by my lovely friend Lauren.

Lauren is definitely Miss PR and has been so great as our chapter president. We love her! Emily, Lauren, and I have worked on several accounts together and they're definitely two of my best PR friends.


And last but not least, my good friend Patrick. We've been through thick and thin together -- lots of projects and really stressful classes. Besides being the most social media savvy person I know, he leaves after graduation to start a job doing PR for General Motors in Detroit. Can't wait to see where he'll be in 20 years!

All I can say is I'm really glad I live in the Facebook generation so I can stay in touch with all of my great friends from college - I'll miss them!

Senior Capstone

2011-04-18T22:13:00.003-06:00

It's crazy to think that the class I've been preparing for over the past three years has finally come and gone! One of the (many) great things about our PR program is we get the chance to work for real clients throughout many of our classes. For our capstone class this semester, our client was UDOT -- The Utah Department of Transit -- and their new TravelWise program. Our team worked throughout the semester to create a PR campaign that we presented to the UDOT clients last week. I was so happy with how hard our team worked and our clients even chose our team as their favorite. After lots of late nights, early mornings, and a 140-page campaign book, it was definitely worth the hard work.

Most of our team after the presentation and our whole group at our professor's house afterward

We had a good time with this client and came up with some really fun tactics. Here are some pictures:

We came up with the "Clean Air Polar Bear" for elementary school kids, and I even got to make my first coloring book!

Kind of sad to think that my days as PR student are over, but I loved every part of it. In my opinion, it's one of the best majors BYU offers ;)

Flowers!

2011-04-02T00:40:00.003-06:00

When it comes to college classes, I definitely saved the best for last. My floral design class has officially come to an end now. We've had an overabundance of flowers in our house (if that's even possible) over the past few months and I'm sad that I won't be getting a new arrangement every other week! So as a tribute to my all-time favorite class, here are some of the arrangements I've done this semester:

Happy 2 Years!

2011-03-28T17:00:00.002-06:00

"O how beautiful it is to be alive—would that I could live a thousand times.” - Beethoven.

Several events have happened lately that has led me think think a lot about the fragility of life and how it can be taken away so suddenly. It's made me think about this quote that Nick shared at our wedding now two years ago -- and life has been nothing but beautiful ever since. Sure, every day in our hectic lives isn't easy, but it makes it so much better when you can go through it with your best friend. We've made so many fun memories this year and can't believe that it just keeps getting better each day. Happy 2 years my love!

Following our fun tradition, we spent another great weekend at the Grand America. We had seriously been looking forward to it for months! And again, no detail was left unnoticed--these were in our room when we checked in.

I could probably spend hours observing the different designs throughout the hotel. I mean, even the bathrooms are amazing! Calcutta marble is definitely something I don't live with everyday :)

There's a bit of a story behind the pizza... but it fit in nicely because the BYU game was on! We decided to spend a fun night in and splurge on brunch the next morning instead.

Zen!

We had a view of the courtyard this time which was so fun to see at night with all of the lights.

We vowed to save up our eating-out dates for about a month so we could try out the Sunday Brunch. I have to say it was definitely worth it. I was almost sad that I couldn't eat more because I was so full! They had everything from crepes to crab legs and sushi to chocolate fondue... pretty much anything you could ever want. And it was all SO tasty. Nick was in heaven at the crepe station. I think we'll definitely have to save up for that again next year :)

Aaaand.... I'm Back!

2011-03-27T23:13:00.000-06:00

Well, after a couple of grueling months, I'm finally back to the blogosphere. Despite our busy schedules, we've had a lot of fun things happening lately and we've been so lucky to have a lot of family in town.

Between o-chem, microbiology, exercise physiology, and his Kaplan DAT course, Nick's schedule is pretty crazy. He spends many nights -- including weekends -- in the lab till midnight, but even though we don't see each other much I'm certainly grateful for how hard he works!

I'm keeping myself busy at Orangesoda and my job with the Department of Communications. I also tried my hand at my first freelance writing project this month. 27 pages was definitely a personal accomplishment! Other than that, I'm counting down the days till graduation next month!

My sister's husband had crazy medical rotations last month, so she came out to visit with her two little girls for a couple weeks. Thanks to the holiday weekend and cancelled classes, I got to stay in Logan with them for almost a week. These two little ones are growing up so fast!

I had to share my new love of fondue dinners with my family...

I convinced Eliza with helping me make my beloved French macaroons by telling her we were going to make PINK cookies - she loves anything pink. Haha. It was quite the process, but she was such a patient helper.

She was thrilled that they matched her pink shirt when they were finished. But I also discovered that baking macaroons without a silicone mat is hopeless. I forgot to bring my second mat from home and quickly found out that wax paper is not the next best option. At least I got one good batch!

This picture kills me. I told Eliza she could pick one of the dozens of spare lipsticks out of my makeup drawer to try on, and of course she chose the brightest one. Not only that, but she insisted that she put it on all by herself. She was so proud of it!

We're definitely more dog hungry than we are baby hungry around our house these days. I think it runs in our genes. So whenever we get the chance to be around dogs we absolutely love it. Kona has to be one of the most spoiled dogs in the world. Haha.

Scottie turns 18!

I was excited to get to be home on Scott's birthday. He and four friends with birthdays around the same time planned a huge dance party with Marcus Wing as the DJ. Despite the raging blizzard outside, they had about 400 people show up. I was the designated ticket girl and definitely had fun people watching for a few hours.

I was also the designated photographer/videographer and was thrilled to find out that my little iPhone video camera did such a great job in a dark dance party -- here's one of the best clips I captured.

Nick turns 26!

I still think it's hilarious that both of our birthdays fall on the 27th.. and only one month apart! We were so happy to have Nick's sister Jessica and her husband Tyler in town from Florida for a few days. We hadn't seen them since our cruise last year! We made our traditional trip to Tucanos to take advantage of our birthday coupon. Yum!

Afterwards we took them to my favorite dessert cafe, The Chocolate, for my favorite cookie dessert. Each place has a different name for them these days, but as you can see from the picture, they are delicious!

Nick's actual birthday was on a Sunday so we had a fun little dessert night with some of our friends from the ward. I had no idea it was possible to fit so many people in our little apartment! We were having so much fun I forgot to take pictures while everyone was actually there (typical), but we had a great time.

Fondue for Two

2011-02-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

We've made a tradition to "eat in" on Valentines Day to spend a quiet night at home and not have to deal with the crazy crowds at restaurants. I have to say that this year definitely didn't disappoint. With my recent trip to The Melting Pot, I got inspired to copy some of their recipes and do the same thing at home so we could enjoy it together. It was a lot of preparation, but it definitely paid off in the end! We gave the night an extra flair by dressing up in our fancy clothes, pouring our Martinellis, and turning on Frank Sinatra in the background.

I prepped a full three-course dinner with a gouda cheese fondue appetizer, coq au vin broth fondue for the main course, and chocolate fondue for dessert. Thanks to the Google I found almost all the original recipes from The Melting Pot.

I think my favorite part has to be that for the entree course. I love that you don't have to worry about under or overcooking the meat.

And the filet mignon was a huge hit with Nick...

Of course, the chocolate fondue is always a favorite no matter what. I think we might just have to make fondue night a Valentine's Day tradition from now on!

Snowy in Dallas

2011-02-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

My hopes for escaping the Utah winter and heading to sunny and 65 degree weather in Dallas were foiled when literally one of the biggest storms of the century hit (just my luck, right?). The BYU Bradley PR Agency got a grant from the university that let us have the opportunity to do PR work for Project Hope's new initiative, Habits 4 Life. Project Hope has been doing humanitarian work all over the world since 1958 - they are the organization that takes the huge navy ship converted into a hospital around the world in the wake of natural disasters. Habits 4 Life is a new state-of-the art mobile clinic that provides free health screenings for heart disease and diabetes for people in the communities it travels to.

Habits 4 Life partnered with several organizations including the NFL Players Association. They planned the event for the mobile clinic for the week leading up the Super Bowl in Dallas in conjunction with several other events that were going on in the area. In the weeks leading up to the event, we got do do a lot of research and media pitching from campus to start raising awareness about the free screenings that Habits 4 Life was providing in communities throughout the area.

So unfortunately, the 3 screening events that were scheduled after the initial kick-off event (when that picture was taken) were cancelled because of the crazy weather. Even though it was only a couple inches and a lot of ice rain, the entire city literally shut down because there is no such thing as snow removal services there.

This ice rink was just the parking lot of our hotel. Imagine that, just on the highways. Recipe for disaster! Haha.

I was hoping that they day after I got there would bring decent weather so I could catch the last schedule screening event, but instead we woke up to this....

Can you believe that?? There was more snow in Dallas than in Provo!

A better view of the 5 inches - we had some trouble clearing off the windshield!

Because of the crazy weather, we spent the entire Friday in our hotel room. Stores and restaurants weren't even open! So we relied on room service and curled up next to the fireplace in our room... with the last two logs the hotel had on hand. Haha.

Luckily the weather on Saturday cleared up a bit so we could make it to the last two events on our schedule. But we were still disappointed that the Snoop Bowl (Snoop Dogg and Deion Sander's famous little-league football matchup) got cancelled because it was an outdoor event. I guess you can't really play football with 5 inches of snow on the ground!

But we did get to attend the private art auction at the Dallas Museum of Art which was really impressive. The NFL Players Association hosted this event where they auction art created by current and former professional sports players.

I'm sure if I were more into football I would have recognized several of the people there, but it was still fun to be a part of!

The second event we went to was sponsored by another partner of Project Hope, the Living Heart Foundation. They provide free screenings for all retired NFL players and they were hosting a big event at hospital in downtown Dallas.

When our events for the day were over we drove over the Arlington to see the Cowboys Stadium. That place is unbelievable! Even though we didn't get to go inside, it was fun to see all the crazy tailgating parties that were going on before the Super Bowl.

I have to say that one of my favorite parts of the trip was the amazing food we ate! Thanks to our per diem and our awesome agency director, Jeff, our stomachs were definitely well-fed.

My first authentic Texas steak. I think it's the first time I've ever been served a steak with a ginormous slab of butter on top. Here's to more cholesterol!

Gottta love that Texas pride - even at the hotel breakfast!

Benihana with our hibachi chef, Miguel. Not quite authentic Japanese, but hey, he played the part well! Haha.

My first experience at The Melting Pot. Definitely love at first taste. I got lots of inspiration to use my own fondue pot at home for more than just chocolate!

Is it really February already?

2011-02-04T19:20:00.003-07:00

Wow, January sure did fly by quickly. Even though my first wave of midterms has passed, I still don't feel like I'm really in the "groove" of the semester yet. Maybe I'll get there by the end of this month if I'm lucky!

Well, we started off the month by saying goodbye to two of our best friends, Kiel and Emily. They had been gone to D.C. all of fall semester, but we were lucky to have them in town for a few days before their big move to California. We'll miss them lots, but hopefully we'll be able to visit them when we're in the mood for warmer weather :)

We also got to brush up on our babysitting skills thanks to the Driscolls, our good friends in the ward. With our little nieces spread out all over the country we never really get to be around kids anymore, but we certainly love getting to see Shaylee. We love her little attitude and her dancing skills!

On a different note, I think Nick's good luck is rubbing off on me. I mean, it's not too often that someone wins a trip to LONDON right? That's only the beginning of his good luck streak, too. OrangeSoda had their holiday party right after New Years, and my name got drawn out of the raffle for Oakley sunglasses! I was pretty surprised, but I attribute my luck to Nick. Haha.

I met up with Lindsey and Kyndra at the Grand America bridal fair and I absolutely had to try the goodies at their new French pastry shop. They definitely didn't disappoint.

I've also been looking everywhere for a place to get French macarons in Utah and I was so excited to hear that they had them! I'm a little bit obsessed with them.

I'm also a little bit obsessed with the Grand America chandeliers as well. After seeing how they're actually made, they're so much more amazing to look at. This one was so perfect for the new pastry shop.

We finally ordered our wedding canvas wrap! I know, it only took us about two years, but we're so happy to have it in our apartment. The flowers on the table are thanks to my floral design class. It's so nice to actually take a fun class for once. I love it!

And last but not least - my birthday festivities! It fell on a Thursday this year so we used it as an excuse to celebrate all weekend. Thursdays are probably the busiest out of the week for Nick and I, but he was so sweet to take me to my favorite dessert cafe, The Chocolate, for some yummy cupcakes.

My sweet mom drove down on Friday and took us out to dinner at Happy Sumo - one of our all time favorites. Then on Saturday we couldn't pass up using my birthday coupon from Tucanos. It was definitely the best weekend for food we've ever had!

I'm typically not a huge beef fan, but every once in a while I crave really good steak - the filet mignon wrapped in bacon is a recent favorite. I always take the bacon off, but the beef itself is a-mazing.

And I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a non-blurry picture of the Riverwoods mall. I love that they keep the lights on even after Christmas.

My dad got this adorable Cath Kidston bag for me. I had never heard of her brand before but my dad is way more exposed to the world's fashion trends than I am. He has some killer shopping skills :)

We also decided to use my birthday as an excuse to upgrade my camera. I've been using the same little Cannon since my dad bought it back in 2005. I loved how little it was, but after 6 years the buttons were starting to wear out. I'm seriously surprised it even lasted that long though!

We went from this:

To this! We stuck with the Cannon but we upgraded from 4 mega pixels to 14. Haha. Thanks to a great sale and an awesome BestBuy giftcard, we got a great deal.

And I couldn't pass up sharing my other favorite birthday gift - my sister put this little message on her blog for me on my birthday. It seriously melted my heart and I watched it a million times. I'm so excited to see them in a couple weeks!

Playing Catch-Up: The Rest of 2010

2011-01-23T22:07:00.001-07:00

If you haven't noticed, I've taken quite the hiatus from blogging.... not so much by choice - mostly just circumstance. Life around the Potter household has been crazy busy the last few months, and blogging always seems to get the lowest priority on my list of things to do. So here's my attempt at documenting some of the highlights from the last part of 2010:

Aaron graduated with his bachelor's degree in business strategy in August. And though that in itself is quite the accomplishment, he graduated from UVU in April with an additional bachelor's degree in aviation. I think that might be the ultimate definition of constant multi-tasking.

Nick's mom, Becki, and his brother Casey came to visit over Labor Day weekend and we all got to go to the BYU football home opener. We lucked out and caught one of the winning games of the season!

My sister Marissa came to visit! The last time she was in Logan, Nick and I were selling in Orlando and I didn't make it home. This is the first time both of us had been back home together since they moved in Summer of 2008. The timing worked out great and we were all able to be at the LHS homecoming parade to see Scott drive out on the field with the rest of the homecoming royalty.

I can't believe how grown up my little brother is! He's bypassed all of us in height, and he's still not done growing! He just found out last month that he got accepted to both USU and U of U. So crazy to think he'll be in college in a few months!

Marissa's husband, Dan, is a third year medical student. We were sad that he couldn't make it out to visit this time with his busy schedule, but we're hoping that we'll all be able to take a (complete) family photo with him soon!

People always say how similar these two look, but what kills me is that they always accidentally dress alike, too!

We took advantage of the beautiful autumn weather and took an awesome Sunday walk up Logan canyon. This picture makes me laugh every time - my Dad thought he'd be funny and clip Kona's leash on Eliza's jacket. She was so confused and couldn't figure out what was happening. Her face says it all!

I was so lucky to take a break from work and school to be at my parents for a few days during their visit. Liza is the ultimate girl - she loves everything about doing hair, painting nails, and pretty much everything that is pink. She couldn't wait to play with grandma's doll and jewelry Play-Doh collection after breakfast (hence the pajamas and huge Play-Doh earring).

This little girl turns 4 years old in just a couple weeks - it seems just like yesterday we were in the hospital visiting her as newborn. I'm so excited to have my sister and her little girls visit again next month - they've grown up so much even since they came in September!

One of my good friends, Chelsea from my Italy study abroad, was in town from California visiting family in Utah over Thanksgiving. I haven't seen her since my wedding, so it was a lot of fun to get together for lunch with her and Jo. We missed Emily - the other part to our group of four - who was finishing up an internship in Washington D.C. Hopefully some day soon we'll all have a reunion again!

We topped off our lunch date with a trip to my favorite dessert cafe, The Chocolate. Simply delicious!

My cousin's wife, Julie, just had her baby this month and we I got to go to a fun shower for her with some of my cousins and my aunt. Julie, (second from left) was 8 months pregnant in this picture, but she was so tiny you can't even see her baby bump! It had been at least a year since I had seen all of them and it was so much fun to catch up.

One of my favorite parts about the Christmas season is all of the music and concerts going on. We got to see John Schmidt in concert at Kingsbury Hall with my grandma and uncle. Besides the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert, it's probably one of the best I've been to!

My other favorite part about the season is Christmas lights! The Riverwoods mall did an awesome job with their Christmas decoration this year - and they were even doing horse-pulled sleigh rides. We celebrated finishing all of our final exams with a trip to Tucanos - such a great ending to a crazy semester. Sorry for the blurry picture - it's the best I could get with the lighting!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

Even though we had so many exciting things happen during 2010, Christmas came faster than we expected! During a busy semester, I think time seems to go buy twice as fast. Nick's absolute favorite holiday is Christmas, so we tried to prolong the happiest season of the year as much as we could by getting our decorations up as early as possible.

I don't think I've ever posted pictures of our apartment, so here you go!

Hobby Lobby was my hero for Christmas decorations this year. It took some work to make space for everything in our tiny apartment, but the nice thing about having a small space is that it doesn't take a lot of decorations to fill it up!

We spent Christmas in Colorado with Nick's family this year. It was my first Christmas with his family, so it was fun to take part in all of their traditions that I always hear about.

These little girls love their uncle Nick. I think the Christmas holiday is always so much more exciting with little kids in the house. We had so much fun getting all of their presents ready to go under the tree after they went to bed on Christmas Eve - and watching them the next morning was priceless!

We spent the last part of our holiday break in Logan at my parent's house for New Years. I'll admit that I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures - I don't think I got one family photo the entire time we were there! haha.

Our New Years Eve wasn't glamourous, but it was pretty relaxing and just what we needed. We had a movie night, lit some fireworks at midnight, and then topped it off with breakfast at 1:00am!

Our midnight breakfast wouldn't have been the same with out my dad's famous scrambled eggs. He uses the leftover honey baked ham from Christmas... a-mazing!

We had a blast celebrating a "second" Christmas with my family. My dad spoiled us with lots of stylish loot from his overseas trips - I think he might be a better shopper than I am!

Kona was loving the pampering from Scott with the new head massager tool we got Aaron. I wish I would have taken a video - she couldn't get enough of it!

This dog never ceases to entertain us. My dad found some e doggie booties in China that he thought would help keep her feet warm in the snow, but she couldn't figure out how to walk in them. We got some great entertainment from watching her. Haha.

One of my proudest accomplishments of my Christmas break was conquering the French Macaron. I've been obsessed with these little sweets ever since the first time I went to Paris. I've been seeing recipes all over the internet, but always hear about how difficult and labor intensive they are to make. But after one not-so-great trial run, this batch turned out beautifully!

And in case you're wondering.... they taste even better than they look! :)

Halloween

2010-11-07T21:24:00.001-07:00

So we both had a pretty eventful Halloween "weekend" this year. It's fun to have events to actually dress up for! We found a great idea for a couple's costume online for Publisher's Clearninghouse, complete with our very own homemade giant check. Haha. For the people that actually knew what Prize Patrol was, they thought it was hilarious. If you're every looking for a great costume idea, this website has some of the most clever I've ever seen!

If there's one thing you should know about OrangeSoda, the company where I work, it's that they are Halloween fanatics. Each department competes in a cubicle decoration contest, and the SEO Department theme this year was Mario World. We all spent lots of time decorating our department for the party on Friday, and I was so impressed at my co-worker's costumes!

Our Mario green tunnel....

Peach's Castle

The Marios

Lakitu - The Cloud Guy

It's even more hilarious when you see the actual resemblance...

We spent the entire day playing Mario video games and handing out candy to little kids. Tough day at work, I know.

DK from Mario Kart

Group picture at the costume parade

If there's ever a time to visit OrangeSoda, it's definitely Halloween!

Paris... The City of Lights!

2010-08-25T20:31:00.003-06:00

This trip to Paris was pretty last minute, but so worth it! We had originally thought about going sometime toward the end of the school year, but the stars aligned and somehow we were able to find an open standby spot on the nonstop flight from Salt Lake! It was only a short four day trip, but we were able to see everything we wanted to!

It just so happened that Aaron and his friend Cory left for Paris the day before we did (for the start of their 2 week tour of Europe), so we were able to meet up with them the day we got there for an awesome bike tour around the city. We packed in a lot of sights in four hours!

At the Louvre...

Nick and his crafty way of filming-while-biking... haha

In front of the Eiffel Tower...

The best dinner crepe I've ever tasted - grilled chicken, sauteed tomatoes, and gruyere cheese. yum.

Got to see the light tour before we went to the top!

At Notre Dame

One thing I love about Paris is that there is a beautiful view no matter where you are... whether it's right in the middle of the city or up on a hill. Even the apartment buildings are beautiful!

At my favorite patisserie near Sacre Coeur.. the best macarons I've ever tasted!

Again.. my beloved macaroons along with Orangina. Probably the best dinner... ever!

Arc de Triomphe

They are in the process of restoring the stained glass at St. Chapelle, and you can see the difference on each side of the cathedral. The restored glass is SO brilliant in person.. pictures just don't do it justice!

One of my favorites at the Louvre -- David's Coronation of Napoleon

Napoleon's Tomb

We took a good two hour nap on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower. I had never seen it so packed with locals just enjoying themselves with their wine and baguettes! Definitely a prime location for people watching :)

Probably one of the best recent additions to the city... rental bikes! For a few Euros you can tour the city by bike... and return it at any kiosk throughout the city. Such a great idea!

Our audio tour at Versailles

Sadly, our camera died right after this picture at Versailles, but we were able to tour the entire palace along with Marie Antoinette's gardens as well as the Grand Trianon. This place never ceases to amaze me... every detail is plastered in gold or marble. So beautiful!

Leaving our hotel for the airport... we found a cute little hotel just a few minutes outside the city and it worked perfectly for us! We had such an amazing (and exhausting) four days in the city. I don't think my feet have ever been that tired.. but I definitely wouldn't trade it. We can't wait to get back to Europe!

Hawaii

2010-08-15T22:53:00.001-06:00

We had been planning this trip to Oahu for several months as our big end-of-summer trip before school started up again. Oahu is definitely my favorite island in Hawaii and I've been wanting to take Nick there for a long time since it's one of my family's favorites. It was so nice to see the beach again and relax for a few days!

We spent Saturday morning at Hanauma Bay, probably one of the best snorkeling spots on the island. We saw so many colorful fish that we had never seen before!

During our drive around the island that afternoon we decided to stop at Shark's Cove to get some more use out of our snorkel gear, and I'm so glad we did! I've never been snorkeling there because every time I had been there before was in the winter with really high tides. But this time of year the water was more clam than I had ever seen it.. and we saw some amazing schools of fish!

And of course, you can't drive through Haliewa without stopping at Matsumotos!

Church in Honolulu

Pali Lookout

Pearl Harbor

We spent lots of time on Waikiki beach just soaking up the sun.. it doesn't get any better than that! Nick's skin got about 10 shades darker... while I'm pretty sure that my skin stayed the same color!

A trip to Waikiki isn't complete without getting conned into holding the infamous parrots!

It was so much fun to get to see Jordan and Cole... on their Honeymoon! They stopped in Oahu on their way back from their stay in Maui, and we got to go to dinner with them while they were there.

In front of my favorite hotel...

We spent our last day on the island at the Polynesian Cultural Center. I hadn't been there since I was really little, so it was fun to go back when I could really appreciate it. This is a giant canoe that was built about 10 years ago by the students at BYU- Hawaii. It looks way bigger in real life!

We topped our day off with the Luau and their their new show, Ha - Breath of Life... which is amazing!

And in between dinner and the show, we got to visit the temple grounds for a little bit... a tradition to take a picture there every time I'm on the island!

San Francisco

2010-08-15T19:25:00.000-06:00

On our way to and from Oahu, we had an overnight layover in San Francisco, so we decided it would be a great chance to get out and see the city together. I guess I should have checked the weather.. but just assumed it would be summer just like everywhere else. Nope! We were surprised with a cool 60 degrees and lots of wind when we got off the plane. We had to resort to a cheesy tourist sweatshirt for Nick so we could try and stay warm!

We hit the typical tourist spots downtown... Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, and Ghirardelli Square. It was pretty cloudy, so you can't really see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, but we had a great view of Alcatraz!

Fisherman's Wharf and the famous stinky sea lions in the foreground

Ghirardelli Square... we definitely got our chocolate fix for the day! We also enjoyed some killer clam chowder bread bowls at the Boudin bakery. To die for!

My Best Friend's Wedding!

2010-08-15T19:13:00.000-06:00

My best friend and next door neighbor, Jordan, got married on July 30th. It's was so much fun to be able to throw her bridal shower and be there at her wedding and dinner afterward! It was the first time that all five of us girls had really been together since graduation, and it was just like old times... except for we're a little more grown up now :) Hard to believe that Jordan and I have been friends and neighbors for 10 years!

All of us at the shower that we threw at my parent's house in Logan -- and the food table below. Thanks to Lindsey and Kyndra for making amazing cupcakes!

We also loved getting to spend time with Erin's new baby Quinncey, who is just so adorable.

We hit the sidewalk sale in downtown Logan after the shower, and got some treats at the old Bluebird restaurant.

Waiting for the happy couple outside of the temple...

I should have taken more pictures of her dinner room, but everything was absolutely amazing.. especially the flowers (and the food)!

All five of us on the dance floor after the dinner

She had the most stunning dress that fit her style just perfectly. Definitely one-of-a-kind!

We couldn't be more happy for Jordan and Cole. We've known them both for a long time and think they are perfect for each other!

Jordan's car that we decorated... and the sparklers we lit to send them off on their honeymoon! And as Jordan said during the reception (and as you can see in the picture)... July 30th was probably the hottest day of the summer in Logan!

Visiting Aaron in Vegas

2010-08-15T18:57:00.000-06:00

Aaron has been living in Las Vegas doing an internship with Allegiant Air since the beginning of the summer. It was a Friday afternoon at work, and at the last minute we decided to drive down to Vegas for the weekend since it was probably our last chance to go visit Aaron - and we're so glad we did!

We ate dinner at the Firefly in downtown Vegas... which is a completely different world than the strip! I hadn't been to Vegas since high school... and didn't even realize that the "Old Vegas" really even existed! Then we headed to the Bellagio to go watch the awesome water show.

If you can't tell by my sweating face in the picture... Vegas is SO hot, not only during the day, but it was about 102 degrees at 11:00 at night! Definitely something I'm not used to, but we enjoyed walking around anyway :)

It was so much fun to see where Aaron has been living for the past few months and having him show us around town. Thanks for the great time, Aaron!

Brianhead With the Yagers

2010-08-15T18:33:00.004-06:00

Our friends, Kiel and Emily, invited us down to Emily's family condo in Brianhead in mid-July. It was a fun little weekend getaway from the work week. I hadn't really spent much time in Southern Utah, and I was loving the beautiful views of the red rock! It's funny to think that this place actually gets lots of snow in the winter!

The scenery on the way to our hike totally reminded me of the movie Cars. Haha.

We drove a couple hours to go on a hike where we thought we'd find a waterfall at the end. But instead....

we got caught in the middle of a rain/hail storm in the middle of the desert! What are the chances? So even though we didn't find a waterfall at the end of the hike, we definitely saw several after the rainstorm! Even though the hail was a little harsh on the skin, we definitely had some great laughs afterward.

Group picture at the top of the Brianhead resort summit.

We spent our nights watching movies and playing lots of cards - we're going to miss them when they move to D.C. this fall! Thanks for the great trip, guys. :)

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-06T22:39:00.001-06:00

For Memorial Day weekend, Emily and Kiel invited us to drive down to L.A. with them to stay at his parent's house for the weekend. Normally I'm not a huge fan of driving long distances, but we figured we might as well seize the opportunity :) The drive didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought. Thanks for driving, Kiel!

All of us at Tito's Taco -- some of the best taco's I've ever tasted. Thanks to Jon Yager for the picture!

We made a stop at the Getty Museum, which has amazing views of the whole Los Angeles area, and some of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen. Definitely a place I'd go back to!

Nick and I at Tito's

Other than driving around Bel Air, Hollywood, and Malibu, we spent a lot of time at their backyard pool (which has awesome lighting at night, as you can see), and making s'mores at the fire pit. And the best part is that the weather was always at a perfect 72 degrees! And also, my other favorite part was the Yager's dog, Tigger and his batman ears. I go through dog withdrawals when I don't have one at home with me!

On our way back from California, we got to stop in Vegas to go to dinner with Aaron who is living there to do an internship for the summer. It was so good to see him, and he's definitely about 10x as tan as I am!

Thanks again, Emily and Kiel, for the great weekend!

The Start of Summer.... Sort Of

2010-06-06T22:27:00.001-06:00

Wow. It's been awhile. And although summer should have officially started, Nick and I are still in school for about another two weeks -- I figure it can't be that bad when it's even still snowing outside :)

The family was in town to help Aaron move out of his apartment after graduation, so of course we had to document it with a family pic.

One of the many reasons that I love my dad -- he loves "variety" (as he always says). haha. So as you can see, he has two cups full of tiny sample cups of frozen yogurt, and one cup full of a few spoonful of toppings. Let's just say we had a good laugh about it :)

We headed to Durango to see Nick's family for Mother's Day weekend -- a few pictures from our walk down on the ranch....

The first and probably the last time I'll ever see Nick on a tractor. At first I thought he'd be a little out of his element, but I could tell he secretly liked playing with the big boy toy. haha. He was a good sport to help out for the day.

We decided to get out and enjoy the first real weekend of summer weather, so we went to the driving range with Kiel and Emily. I learned two things: Nick has a really good golf swing and I really don't. I'm going to have to brush up on my golf skills!

The boys and their clubs ....

This one's for Emily :)

Hopefully the weather will continue to stay warm and not bring anymore snow!!

Milwaukee

2010-05-02T00:46:00.002-06:00

I had a few days between the end of finals and when spring classes started up again and since I found a great deal on a ticket to Milwaukee, I couldn't resist going to visit my sister and her cute family for a few days.

I was so excited to finally meet my niece, Charlotte, who was born last October!

And of course, I couldn't wait to little Eliza who I hadn't seen since last June - she has grown up so much!

We made our first stop at the Milwaukee Zoo - which, surprisingly, is one of the best I've been to. They have every kind of animal you can think of!

We loved being able to watch the tigers and all the other big cats up close!

We also made a trip to the Harley Davidson museum in downtown Milwaukee. And despite not being a huge Harley fan, I really like the museum! A must see if you're ever in the area.

They had motorcycles on display from all the way back in the early 1900's.

This was the first Harley ever built - all the way back in 1903 - pretty amazing that it's even still intact! And the white lines on the floor show the size of the first shop where they built the bikes.

Of course, Eliza was thrilled when she spotted the PINK motorcycle.

And again when we found the pink Harley gear in the "kid's corner" - she even got to play on her own play motorcycle! haha.

Dan was able to take a day off from school to drive down to the outlet malls with us.. where we spent way too much on clothes! But on the way we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory and got to sample lots of new flavors.

However, I didn't dare get close to these. In case you can't see the picture.. some of the worst were moldy cheese, rotten egg, booger, canned dog food... you get the idea.

But Aaron was determined to try every yucky flavor -- and he definitely did. Ew!

Another favorite part about Milwaukee is that they have awesome malls with every store you could ever want... including H&M (my favorite)! Marissa and I had so much fun shopping together - which doesn't happen every often. And Eliza definitely had a good time entertaining herself by trying on all the pretty bracelets. haha.

We were so happy that Aaron was able to fly out with me as well - even though Marissa and Dan have lived in Milwaukee for about two years, this is the first time he could come to visit! He had a great time playing uncle for the weekend (and yes, Charlotte smiles like this all the time - so cute! ).

I had such a fun week having no homework and being able to relax and be with my family. It was so hard to leave especially since class started the next day, but I knew Nick was getting pretty lonely back in Provo :)
Thanks Dan and Marissa for letting us stay with you all week - can't wait to see you again in August (or hopefully sooner)!

April, Finals, and Busy Weekends

2010-05-01T23:26:00.002-06:00

My posting activity pretty much describes our free time in the past month. It always seems like the last three weeks before finals are the busiest of the whole semester! The good news: we survived. The bad news: we started school again this week! But we figure another 6 weeks of spring semester won't kill us... right?

A little bit of what we've been up to....

One of my best friends, Jo, is getting married in a few months and I got to help Emily make some treats for her bridal shower. Chocolate covered strawberries are a favorite!

Jo's getting married in the D.C. Temple, but they're also having a reception on Oahu, where her Fiance is from. I'm secretly hoping that I can use that as an excuse to get back to Hawaii soon :) We're so excited for you, Jo!

As I mentioned before, Nick has been busy with the Air Force ROTC all semester. Despite the early morning workouts twice a week and lots of work, he really loves it. I think it would kill me.

We got to attend the end-of-semester "Dining Out"- which means we got to get all dressed up - and Nick had to buy me a corsage!

I don't think I've worn one of these since high school, but it matched my dress perfectly!

Let's just say I was introduced to a whole new world of military etiquette that I never even knew existed! But it's always fun to get dressed up for an event.

And...a special thanks to our good friends Mike and Alisha. Mike's been our home teacher this year and has been helping Nick with the ins and outs of ROTC since the beginning!

Nick's favorite part of the month - he finally got the road bike he's been dreaming about for the past year. We can't wait for the Utah weather to stop brining snow so we can actually get out and bike together!

1 year!

2010-03-23T23:40:00.001-06:00

Even though it happened a year ago, we still remember it like it was yesterday! Sometimes I wonder where the entire year went -- it seems like it just slipped by so fast. I guess time just goes quickly when you're loving every minute of it :) But when I look back, I realize that we've really done a lot this year, and have been A LOT of places. It's been such a fun adventure!

We decided to start a fun tradition and stay at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake for the weekend. We stayed there the first two nights of our honeymoon, and couldn't wait to go back after we left. It's probably one of our favorite places in Utah!

And another reason why we love this hotel is that they definitely go the extra mile. When we booked the room, we mentioned we were coming back for our one year anniversary. We got to our room and found this on the table...

And yes, it was delicious. They also gave us a bottle of sparkling cider and an upgrade to an executive suite when we go back next year. I'm already looking forward to it!

It's not everyday that you get to eat a white chocolate swan :) haha

Other highlights:

We love the spa! The cozy pool lounge chairs and the classical music puts me to sleep every time.

And another part of the hotel that never ceases to amaze me is the venetian chandeliers that are literally everywhere you look. I think you appreciate them more when you've actually seen someone blow the glass that it takes to make them. It's incredible!

We had a wonderful time and it was a much needed break from our normal weekend routine of studying!

Platinum Cruise

2010-02-28T22:44:00.002-07:00

Cruises definitely top the list of my favorite vacations and this one definitely didn't disappoint.

We started off with an overnight stay in Ft. Lauderdale. Nick's siblings were able to drive over from Naples to visit for the night, and they actually got a hotel room just down the hall from ours. It was so much fun to hang out with them... and we loved that they snuck the wiener dogs in, too :)

Casey was so nice to bring Nick a birthday cake so we could celebrate a week early together!

When we boarded the ship in Miami, the weather didn't look too promising... lots of wind and jacket weather. boo. But we ended up spending the first few hours exploring the ship and of course, testing out the food, which was obviously Nick's favorite part!

The second day of the cruise was a "sail day," and luckily the weather cleared up so we were able to spend some time in the sun on the deck.

That night was formal night. We had a great time laughing at all of the people getting their portraits taken with the cheesy backgrounds around the ship. To each his own I guess. We decided to just stick with the stairs.... haha.

And MY favorite part of the food was the chocolate melting cake. I had one every night of the cruise. Yum!

Our first stop was on the island of Grand Turk - The beach was absolutely incredible with the clear blue water, but my other favorite part is that the ship was docked just a few hundred feet off shore!

This was definitely one of the best beaches that I've ever been to. So beautiful!

Leaving Grand Turk

Dinner on Wednesday and watching Angels and Demons on the deck afterward.

Unfortunately, on Thursday they cancelled our stop at Half Moon Cay because of a bad weather warning. They claimed they tried to find another port but couldn't... but we have a theory that they just wanted to make more money off of us by keeping us on the ship :) We had a relaxing day though, and we got to get a few extra hours of sleep. And luckily there was a great sunset.

On our last stop of the cruise we were so lucky to have one of the owners of Platinum take us to the Atlantis resort near Nassau. It was absolutely incredible! I told my family that they totally have to put this place on their list of places to visit.

First of all, the entire place is almost like a giant aquarium. There are so many amazing collections of fish, dolphins, sharks, stingrays, and so much more.

Stingrays and a giant grouper

Rumor has it that Michael Jackson used to own the 6,000 sq. foot suite that connects the two towers of the hotel. They say that celebs like Michael Jordan, Oprah, and more have stayed there with the tab of about $25,000 a night. Drop in the bucket, right?

Beautiful beach at the resort

The pyramid in the background is the famous water slide that they advertise in their commercials -- it takes you through a glass tube through a giant shark aquarium!

The Platinum Wives

The Guys

The yacht harbor... what a life!

At first, I thought our ship was pretty big. However, we came back the port and saw this ship. It's the biggest ship in the world - the Oasis of the Seas. It was practically dwarfing ours! To put it in perspective, our ship is about 11 stories.... the Oasis was at least five to six stories taller than the Destiny.

While our ship was pulling out of the pier we got to see the inside of the Oasis, complete with two huge outdoor screens, full-size rock-climbing walls and room balconies that actually look in to the middle of the ship. It's incredible! I think our next cruise will have to be on the Oasis :)

What we've been up to lately....

2010-02-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

Well, it's almost midterms and it still seems like we're trying to find our "groove" for the school year -- hence, the grim blog posts. However, here are some of biggest life events lately:

Nick has been super busy this semester since he joined BYU's ROTC. He hasn't "officially" signed with the military yet, but he thought he would try it out this semester because they offer some great dental scholarships. He's been going to physical training about three times a week at 6 am. As you know, I'm definitely not a morning person, so most of the time I don't even realize that he leaves in the morning. However, I'm assuming he enjoys it or else he couldn't have the motivation to go every morning :) haha.

Ironically, the job market for me over the past nine months seems like it has either been feast or famine. For some reason, over the past month I've been offered three new jobs! I only kept one of the BYU jobs that I was offered because the have a policy that you can't work more than 20 hours on campus per week. I interviewed for a position as a Student Ambassador for the BYU Comms Department last September -- but they emailed me a few weeks ago letting me know of an opening for a paid position. It's only a few hours a week, but we get to do a lot of fun event planning and alumni outreach.

Nick has been with OrangeSoda pretty much ever since it was established a few years ago -- he took a break for about a year for summer sales, but has been working there ever since September. He heard of a job opening in their SEO department last week and had me send in my resume. I met with them for an interview last week and got an offer letter this Wednesday! I started work on Friday and realized that I will actually be seeing Nick more now that we both have jobs than when we didn't. haha.

But, the best news of the month -- we leave on our cruise a week from today! Vacations are always much more exciting when "normal" life gets really hectic. We will actually be on the exact same ship that my family and I were on six years ago when we went on our first cruise. I'm pretty much counting down the hours...

Legal!

2010-01-31T21:00:00.001-07:00

That's right, I'm finally 21! That means Nick and I can go party now.... just kidding. But I'll finally get to change my drivers license -- big news, right?

I was so lucky to get to celebrate my birthday for over a week this year! Nick's sister, Tiffany, and her cute family actually stayed over at our house on their way to Durango from Elko. We hadn't seen them since October, and it was so fun to see how much the girls had grown. They brought an amazing chocolate cake to celebrate my birthday a week early.

Last Sunday, my dad was released as bishop in his university student ward. It's amazing how much has happened in the three years that he has had that calling! I was so glad that I was able to be there to hear both my mom and dad speak.

Another perk of being home is that I actually had time to cook! I've had the weird urge to make a red velvet cake for months, which is funny because I'm typically not a huge fan of cake. My excuse was that I wanted to make my own birthday cake. So here it is -- the finished product:

But the best part is the color of the inside!

Nick is always the king of surprises. This weekend, he planned a surprise party with a lot of our good friends and a new pizza restaurant in Provo. I had no idea until I walked in!

Two of my best friends, Emily and Jo, were the party planners and decorated all of the tables with a beach theme. They even got me a sweet leopard birthday hat!

Thanks for the great birthday, everyone!

Holiday Festivities

2010-01-10T22:24:00.000-07:00

We had such a wonderful Christmas break this year with my family in Logan. It was so nice to have a couple weeks to just relax after finals.. and before we all started school again!

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is all the decorations that go along with it. One of the traditions in our house is my mom's "memorabilia"tree. I'm pretty sure she's been collecting ornaments since she was a little girl! Every year we put the tree up as a family -- and it's so fun to pull out so many ornaments that have memories of our childhood and all of the places that we've traveled.

I took a few pictures of the ornaments that I remember most on the tree. My mom got the ornament below when she was nine!

This ornament was another favorite as a child. Each one of us would take turns moving it around to our favorite colored light!

These other ornaments are also from my mom's childhood -- It still amazes me that they're intact after all these years!

And of course, another one of my favorite parts of being home is seeing my sweet dog, Kona! I couldn't help but take a picture of her cute winter coat.

We started a new Christmas tradition this year of making a gingerbread on Christmas Eve! I had never made one of actual gingerbread, so of course, I loved it! I was surprised that all of the boys got pretty excited about it too. haha.

The finished product...

I was "Santa's" helper this year... and spend a whole afternoon wrapping all of Mom and Dad's presents for the family -- I think the total count was 45! Good thing I enjoy wrapping presents, right?

Traditional Christmas morning picture with everyone in their pajamas.. and Nick and I with our morning faces! haha.

My Grandma and Uncle Mark came to our house for Christmas dinner along with two guys from my dad's ward. We love having visitors in our house!

If you know my dad, you know that he's always looking for a better, more efficient way to do a job. Nick was helping us cook Christmas dinner, and my dad came in with goggles and rubber gloves for Nick to cut onions with! He claims it keeps your eyes from tearing, and your hands from smelling like onion all day. But you have to admit, it's pretty clever, but looks hilarious!

The day after Christmas the family went ice skating together. I was pretty rusty after not going for a couple years, and took a pretty comical spill, but we all had a great time.

One year ago on New Years, we got engaged at Temple Square! It's so amazing how fast a year can pass by.

Nick had to go back to Provo for a few days to work, but I was so glad that he could come back to Logan for New Years weekend! Aaron and Scott decided to take a quick trip to Cancun that week, but ended up getting back in to Logan that night as well. We celebrated with some Martinelli's, lighting off firecrackers, and mom's tradition of banging pots and pans outside.

Scott was at a friend's house for the midnight celebration, and Aaron was feeling a little left out with out a "significant other," so he just had Kona fill in:) This picture was all his idea!

Tis the season

2009-12-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to see the lights at temple square. We were so excited when we got tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert with Natalie Cole. One of the best concerts I've been to in a long time!

I love that the sets for the concert change every year. This year the decorations, the dancers, singers and the orchestra were amazing!

We had two extra tickets to the concert so we had Aaron bring his date, Diana, along with us.

And of course, I couldn't leave without getting a picture of the beautiful lights!

This week was Nick's company Christmas party with OrangeSoda at the new Sleepy Ridge golf course club house. I didn't even know that this place existed, but it's really beautiful - inside and out!

(I couldn't really take a picture of it in the dark -- but this is what it looks like!)

It was so fun to put up our first Christmas tree together this year! If you know me, you probably know that I love black. No, I'm not gothic, but I have tons of black clothes, I decorate my apartment with black.... so you can imagine how excited I was to find these fun black ornaments! I just love them.

This treat has been my addiction this season. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with hot chocolate. The cookies are probably my favorite part of the combination though. I freeze a whole batch of them so I can pop them in the oven and have them whenever I want!

Don't worry, I didn't eat this all by myself! Although I probably could have.... :)

Back in November, we took a quick trip to Durango to see Nick's family. My favorite part was that they turn the famous railroad passenger train into the Polar Express for the season. It's exactly like the book --all of the kids even wear pajamas and they give you hot chocolate a long the way. We didn't actually go on the train, but it would be so fun to go with little kids!

Autumn!

2009-11-18T22:33:00.012-07:00

Autumn is probably one of my most favorite times of year! I've been trying to enjoy every last minute of it before the first "real' snowfall hits Provo.

We've had a pretty busy last month or so, but here are some of the things that we've been up to...

The end-of-the-year Platinum party was mid-October in Salt Lake at the Gateway. We had a great time seeing our friends from Orlando for the first time since we left!

My friends happened to be in Salt Lake from Logan that night as well, and it was so fun to be with them-- they never cease to entertain me!

Nick and his friends, Travis and Dan, decided to go all-out for the BYU homecoming game. ( I told Nick that this is what he's going to look like when he's 60). But despite their Cougar spirit, our team ended up getting killed by TCU. But we all still had a good time :)

Possibly the funniest, and most random, story of the month. We had to take Nick to the ER! He got a really sudden infection in his toe -- which swelled up to probably two to three times its size. It looked pretty scary so we decided to go get it checked out. It turned out the be Cellulitis, but the doctors immediately put him on IVs and gave him x-rays. We were really glad that we didn't wait to go to the hospital!

I'll spare you the up-close picture of the toe, but believe me, it was huge!

When Nick's family heard the news, they decided to come see us for the weekend -- along with their three doggies. It was so fun to have them here, and Nick definitely loved having his dogs in the house!

And last, but not least, some of my favorite Fall pictures! Provo is so beautiful this time of year.

This is the view from the stairs up to our apartment.

Nick and I drove the alpine loop through Sundance. It was the first that either of us had been up there, and it was absolutely breathtaking! It was a great Saturday drive.

2009-10-18T12:36:00.002-06:00

Thanks to Lindsey for finding my wedding bouquet on UtahBrideBlog!
(upper left corner)
I was so lucky to work with Studiostems and Blush as a great photographer!

A Few Updates...

2009-10-09T12:48:00.008-06:00

Here's what we've been up to the past month

Our first REAL Salt Lake Game

New member in our household....

Great win at the USU game

Along with the family who came to cheer on the Cougars

Followed by watching General Conference from the Press Room to write my articles for the Daily Universe

And luckily my parents found extra tickets so Nick and a friend could come with me :)

6 Months!

2009-09-21T23:21:00.007-06:00

Happy SIX months Honey! Can't believe how fast it's gone -- but it's been the best!

1 year ago....

18 months ago...

2 years ago

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-17T10:50:00.013-06:00

We had a fabulous Labor Day weekend with my family in Logan! It was the perfect end to our summer vacation. Super relaxing -- but never a dull moment!

It started off with boating at Willard Bay. It was the first time that Nick and I were on our boat together! Crazy, I know. We were happy to get one last great boating day in before the chilly Autumn temperatures.

Let me just say this: five tramps, 150 high school kids and free Red Bull for all. Quite the party.

Thanks to Aaron and his "connections" his friends, the Red Bull Girls, stopped by Scott's after-football-game party at our house to pass out hundreds of cans of Red Bull. Not to mention that Scottie and the neighborhood boys gathered all of their tramps in our backyard.

I don't know many other parents that would let their 17-year-old have a party like that! haha.

On Saturday, Aaron took Nick, Dad and I on our first off-roading adventure up to the top of Mt. Logan. My neck was a little sore the day after, but the view at the top was totally worth it!

On Monday, Dad gathered up all the bikes and took us to the top of Green Canyon to ride the single-track all the way to the bottom - along with Kona. Green Canyon is so beautiful in the Summertime!

All of us at the top

And at the bottom

Thanks, mom and dad for the great weekend!

The Last of Orlando

2009-09-16T23:38:00.013-06:00

Since we've been back in Utah for a few weeks now, I figured it's time to update about our last weeks in Orlando!

Some highlights:

We discovered that Downtown Disney is a great place to go for Sunday night walks- lots to walk around and see, but you don't have to pay to get in!

Probably one of my favorite parts about it was the Mr. Potato Head store. They had every Disney Character imaginable that you could turn your Mr. Potato Head into.

Darth Vadar

Mary Poppins and Mr. Incredible

Little Mermaid and Peter Pan

Dad stopped in for a visit between his trips. He was only there for a day, but we decided to go the "Holy Land Experience," something I never even knew about until I moved to Orlando. Probably not something either of us would do on a vacation, but we're glad we went! It was very educational... and made me realize I need to brush up on my Bible knowledge!

We decided to make use of our spare bedroom and build a fort! I don't think I've done that since about the 5th grade. But hey, why not use the extra bedroom while we have it?

And last of all, our cute apartment. With two bedrooms, two bathrooms, walk-in closets, a huge bathtub and a laundry room, I have to admit that I miss it! It was a great apartment to have lots of visitors!

More family comes to visit!

2009-08-15T15:44:00.000-06:00

On the way to southern Florida, Nick's Mom, sister Jessica and her husband Tyler stopped in Orlando to hang out with us over the weekend. We hadn't all been together since Christmas! We decided to hit the theme parks, and all voted on Universal's Islands of Adventure because of their awesome roller coasters, and the fact that it was new for all of them!

Sweet 3D glasses for the Spiderman ride- which is one of my favorites

The Grinch store in Dr. Suess Land. I think Nick's trying to look like the Grinch, but I could be wrong.....

Hot and sweaty with tired feet- can't be at a Florida theme park without it!

Jurassic Park

The next weekend, Nick and I headed down to Naples to see his sibling's new home-front. We had a great Sunday together going to church, eating Becki's traditional "Sunday dinner" and going to the beach.

A Naples sunset complete with lighting, rain clouds, and DOLPHINS! Couldn't be better.

Perks of the Job

2009-08-14T15:11:00.005-06:00

I don't know anyone that works harder than my husband... and thanks to him, these lovelies are headed to my doorstep!

One bonus of working in the summer sales business is that they usually have some pretty cool prizes and incentives. I could probably compile a list of all of the things that Nick has won over the past couple years.

Anyway, Nick won a gift card for NikeId to design your own running shoes. Even though I protested, he told me that I was the only one who could use it since I needed new running shoes more than he did. What girl can pass up new shoes?

I love him:)

But luckily for him, he also won a new Apple TV- and although it's not technically a TV, we're still pretty excited about it. Now we just need a real TV to use it with!

My cute mini Nike shoe box that the gift card came in. I love mini things.

I might just keep it forever.