O Canada

Last week we took a trip up to Canada for a family reunion on Brandon's mom's side. Other than the long drive to and from, we had a lot of fun. It was so good to see Ryan and Jess and Mady and for me to meet all of Brandon's other cousins who I only know through blogs (such a weird world we live in).

One day we went to the Calgary Stampede. It's all about over-priced food and expensive carnival rides but we did find a few free shows to go to that were really good.

First was the dog show...

I had to crop this picture because in the background you could see Jessica eating and Chandra's legs. You're welcome guys. ;)


Haley is the most gorgeous little 4 year old I've ever met. (She's our niece for those of you that asked last time.)


Then the BMX show (pretty impressive I must admit).


Then the hypnotist show that was pretty darn funny.


I loved this sign for the bathrooms.


And I have to admit, there was no orange bang on the Tom Thumb Donuts. They were so yummy!


Here is Tara's favorite ride, the Fireball. Brandon loved it but I just watched. Those kind of rides make me sick.


Another day we hung out at a park and played some crazy games. Here I am trying to walk while balancing a book on my head, keeping a coin in my eye, and holding a ball between my knees.


We went to the cemetary and visited Brandon's grandpa's grave. I really wish I could have met him. Everyone had so many good things to say about him. (Always makes me wonder what people will say about me after I'm gone...yikes! I still have time to change, right?)


The Calgary skyline...


The best part about our trip was Banff, a national park there. It was so pretty! We went on this beautiful (and easy - doesn't get much better than that) hike to a waterfall.


Then we went to a gorgeous lake and went canoeing and had a BBQ.


I think this picture of Mady is so stinking cute! She was so much fun to play with.


We ate so much good food while we were in Canada, mostly thanks to Brandon's aunt and uncle, Kevin and Cyndi, who were the best hosts anyone could ever ask for. We also watched a couple movies in their theater. It was so much fun staying with them!

Now it's back to work and regular life. Yuck. At least my cousin is getting married this Friday so it's only a 4-day work week. Yay!

4th of July Festivities

I LOVE the 4th of July! We had so much fun celebrating this year. I guess technically the first thing I did to get festive was paint my nails in honor of the holiday. Those are little white stars on them in case you can't tell.


The first activity we did was our annual BBQ and mini golf at Cascade. It's always so much fun. The food seemed especially good this year. Here are a few pictures...






Thursday morning me and Bran woke up early and went to see the hot air balloons with Kristi and Ben. It was so awesome! We took like a million pictures. Brandon said me and Kristi were like kids at Toys R Us. :) It's so fun though. I want to do it every year! So fun that we ended up going back on Saturday morning with Brandon's parents and Tara and Gary.










Here we are waiting for the balloons to come back for their competition, but they never made it.


Smokey the Bear landed right over by our house.


The actual day of the 4th was so awesome. It was great having work off and we sure made the most of our day. I started it out running in the 5k. Kristi, how did you and I not get any pictures together?!! It was so much fun. I want to try for the 10k next year, but we'll have to see.




This is the AMAZING bagel sandwich Brandon brought to me after the race. I'm so glad someone in our house knows how to make good food. It certainly isn't me.


So then we watched the parade, which was awesome.


The big blow up balloons are one of my favorite things about the parade.


I had to include a picture of the Strawberry Days float since I grew up in Lindon.


This picture was taken for a certain someone. I think you know who you are. ;)


Later in the day we went swimming but I didn't take any pictures there. And we watched fireworks of course at night. It was an awesome day.

On Saturday we hiked up to Stewart Falls. It was harder and longer than we remembered but it was still a really fun hike. If only we knew what we were getting ourselves into, we probably would have let Shannon (5 months pregnant) and Haley (4 years old) stay behind. :) We had fun with everyone together though.








Later that day we went to the Freedom Festival in downtown Provo to get our two favorite things: Twisted Potatoes and Funnel Cake. I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have any pictures but man, they are so yummy! Here are some pictures courtesty of Google Images in case you guys don't know what these are. I highly recommend them!

Funnel Cake:


Twisted Potatoes:


Anyway, we had a fabulous weekend and now after work today we are headed off to Canada for a week so stay tuned for a post about our trip. :)

River Pictures

I'm so glad my cousin Ryan had an awesome waterproof camera that also takes quick action shots. I'm sure there is technical terminology for all of this but anyway, check out these pics!!

I LOVE cliff jumping. It was a little different into the Colorado River though. The water was so cold it takes your breath away when you first get in. And even though in the pictures it doesn't look like there's much of a current, it was strong enough to start pulling you down the river before you could even reach the surface again. It was so fun!

Me and Bran were lucky enough to get to go in the kayak for a little while. It made the rapids a lot more exciting. Too bad no one got a picture of us during one of those rare rapids. :) (Side note: I felt as frumpy as I look in these pictures with my long shorts and Brandon's t-shirt so I didn't get burned.)


This is a picture of us up on Sand Dune Arch. It was quite the climb to get up there. Brandon climbed up and then literally pulled me up there. It was cool.

Soakin Up the Sun in Moab

Last weekend we went down to Moab for a family reunion with all the cousins on my mom's side. We have these reunions every two years. So at the last one, Brandon and I had only been married a couple of weeks. :) Last year we were in tents and something I ate made me sick so I was throwing up the whole time. This year was much better!

We spent a lot of time in the pool, hiking to some of the arches, floating down the Colorado River with a few occasional rapids, hiding in our cabin from all the mosquitoes that swarmed us the second it cooled down at night, and of course visiting with cousins. It was so fun to see everyone!

My grandma got cabins for all of us and me and Brandon had finally been married long enough to deserve not only our own cabin, but one with a TV and fridge! We loved it.

Here are some pictures from our trip. My cousin Ryan had a waterproof camera so hopefully I will be able to post more pictures of the river run and cliff jumping later.

If I was still single,

292 people would have the same name as me. But here are the stats for my married name:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 31 people with my name in the U.S.A. http://howmanyofme.com">How many have your name?

Results for Brandon:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 20 people with my name in the U.S.A. http://howmanyofme.com">How many have your name?

Random Memories

What I was doing 10 yrs. ago: I was 16, just finished with my Sophomore year of high school, which was my first year on the volleyball team. I think I was probably working at Western Watts with Natalie and playing all sorts of pranks on our supervisors and stealing candy from the closet downstairs!

5 yrs. ago: I was 21, and very busy secretly planning going on a mission. I was living in a BYU ward and just working with my bishop there to get everything all taken care of. I think it was in June actually that I got my mission call, which is when my parents found out I was going on a mission. It was awesome!! Sometimes my mom would just burst into tears randomly because she was so worried about me living in the Philippines (and for good reason). I don't know how I survived it. But I sure miss it now.

1 yr ago: I was celebrating my 1-year anniversary with Brandon at the Little America in Salt Lake. Other than that, I was still in the same job and so was Bran. I think the only thing that was different was that we were living in Jason and Shannon's basement.

Yesterday: I worked all day and then hung out at home and pretended to help Brandon put up a little brick retaining wall in our front yard. Then I was totally bugged at some people who came and tried to sell us a $2000 Kirby vacuum. After that we went to keep Tara company for a little while before we all went to bed.

Today: I am excited it's Friday! I'll probably end up leaving work early and tonight we get to babysit Haley! We're taking her swimming tomorrow and we're so excited about it.

5 favorite snax: Airheads, starburst, skittles, jelly bellies, and I actually do like real fruit too. :)

5 favorite books: I don't read much these days but I did like the Twilight series. When I was little it was Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children.

5 places I would love to run away to: The beach, the Philippines, Australia, Hawaii, any nice resort with a pool.

5 bad habits: Forgetting EVERYTHING I need to do, eating too many treats, being lazy with flossing, going to bed without washing my face, worrying too much.

5 things I would never wear: (you can hold me to this if I ever break down) Pointy shoes, skinny jeans, massive jewelry, high heels, long shirts with spandex underneath.

5 pet peeves: People who are late, people who don't do what they say they'll do, I really can't think of any more than those two.

5 things I like to do: Hang out with Brandon, sleep, go swimming, go on trips, have BBQs in the canyon.

5 favorite TV shows: The Office is about the only one I really care about.