Happy 2 Years!

"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!

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.