Nutcracker and Benihana

As a tradition in my family we go to the Nutcracker and Benihana the Saturday before Christmas. I look forward to it every year.

In this picture we are showing off the drink cups which say Benihana.

Each year we get a girl cousin picture at Benihana. We were able to get everyone there but Kayla.

After dinner, we headed to go see the lights at the temple grounds. They were beautiful! I love this red tree. I think it's so pretty, how they make a "tree" with the lights.

I love this picture. We changed the lighting on our camera, so that we could get a great view of the temple and the lights.

My favorite part of the temple grounds was the marble nativity. It was so gorgeous in the water with the candles.

Christmas Tree Hunt

Finally now that the semester is over, I can post some blogs. The day after Thanksgiving we cut down our Christmas Tree. This has been a fun tradition in my family since I was little. We always go to Chicks for breakfast in Heber. It is delicious! My parents always get a twenty foot tree, so our poor little tree always looks dwarfed compared to theirs. This year the only dog that we could bring was Keisha, since Penny tore her ACL and walks on three legs :-(I love this family picture. Keisha is such a gorgeous dog!

My parents and their tree. (notice that you can't even see the whole thing in the picture) I still think they should have used this on their Christmas card.

We always go with my parent's friends the Bowlers. This is them posing with their tree.This picture just makes me laugh. We were pretending to do a cute kiss picture but instead notice the white powder on my jacket from the aspen trees (why we wear our old ski clothes) and that I am fogging up Preston's glasses. :-)

Last day of finals...for this semester.....

Well it has finally come, the last day of finals. Its December 19th and Miss and I are just a few hours away from a whole 3 week break. This has been a tough semester with trying to fit everything in. I have constantly felt that I never got to see Miss. Well at least next semester wont be as trying and our schedules are a little more flexible... or at least thats how it is looking. I cant believe my stats professor decided to have the final on the last day of finals week. Its been 4 weeks since our last lecture so the material is not as fresh in my mind. I hope all goes well. Look to see us post some more blogs once we get some more time. The Christmas season can now begin...at 5:30 p.m.

Why I do what I do

It's nearly midnight, and most normal people are in bed. Unfortunately I have to write a paper... one of the joys of grad school. During weeks like this, I often wonder why I do this. I never see my husband, I don't sleep, and I have had a cold almost the entire semester. Last night after teaching my cute student Mia, I was reminded by her parents that I had promised to play for them. I had a big final this morning, but I figured I could spare a few minutes. After playing I was astonished to see tears rolling down the mom's face. She told me that she had never heard anyone play like that before, and how different it was than listening to a recording. I was so flattered. I am glad that my music could touch someone like that. It's nights like those that remind me why I do what I do and give me the strength to survive the next week.

Happy Thanksgiving

This year it was Preston's side of the family for Thanksgiving. We started off the day at his Aunt Wendy's house for the White side Thanksgiving. After a yummy lunch, we headed over to visit his Grandpa and Grandma Foster and some of his cousins. That night we watched a Christmas kickoff movie at his parents.The Foster family: Preston's parents, his sister April and her husband Nate, and Dolly.

As I think about what I am grateful for this year, I want to thank my sweet parents and friends for feeding me during these last busy weeks when I have been unable to cook. Also for my dear hubby for not only helping to cook, but staying up late with me to help me on my homework, and for cleaning the entire house! Thank you, Thank you!!

We realized that we hadn't taken any pictures during the day. So unfortunately after the movie, the only extended family that was over there was Wendy and cousin Montana.

This last picture just makes me laugh! We are all pretending to be stuffed! Notice the whipping cream and the pillow shoved in Tana's shirt!

Things that Must Go

So in the mornings I love to listen to the morning radio shows, and on one of them, they have a list of things that must go. Well I have one to add to the list. Leaving flyers/advertisements on people's cars at the U. It must go!

Happy Halloween!

Last weekend we got to hang out with our friends Nicole and Bryce and carve pumpkins and watch a scary movie. I also found out that apparently Preston doesn't like carving pumpkins... this was news to me since we carve pumpkins every year, but yet every time I tried to carve our pumpkin, he would tell me that I wasn't doing it right :-)
This is Preston's pirate face. Our pumpkin is supposed to be a skull with cross-bones. Also you can see Bryce's Utah pumpkin that he designed himself. It turned out so good! Nicole's also turned out awesome, but you can't see it in this picture. Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Yellowstone and Jackson

Preston and I celebrated our second anniversary on October 13th. I can't believe how the time has flown by. Preston had the day off because of Columbus day, but I still had to work :-( but we still did have time to grab some yummy sushi for dinner. It is usually so expensive but we decided that we could splurge. I have never had sushi leftovers before! Since Preston got me an expensive present last year (a third band for my ring) this year was an expensive gift for him. We got him a nice new suit and some dress slacks for work and are still looking for some good prescription sunglasses since he can't wear contacts. Together we got the office, and a new willow tree figurine to replace the one beheaded last year in the flood. (you can read all the details of this in last December's post :-) He also suprised me with two dozen roses! We also had a fun getaway to Jackson the weekend after. It was a much needed relief from school. Jackson always has the best food, and cute little shops.
This is us in the town square. It had snowed a few days before but it turned out to be beautiful weather. The only down side of this beautiful weather was that the spiders blew in! Literally it is some weird migration thing. They have their strings that they blow in on and so the whole town is covered with cobwebs and spiders. Can you imagine any worse nightmare??
Thankfully though the spider thing only lasted one morning. I love this picture because you can see the antler arch of the town square.
On our drive into Yellowstone we stopped at this beautiful lake. It was so calm you can see the reflection of the mountains. (except for the times that Preston kept throwing rocks which were more like miniature boulders in. You see he can't skip rocks, so instead he tries to throw in the largest rocks he can find to see how big of a splash he can make :) In Yellowstone we drove into La Mar valley and since it was dusk the animals were starting to come out. We got to see a coyote, a fox, a bear, a pack of wolves, and of course Bison and Elk! We stayed at the lodge by Old Faithful and walked around the geysers the morning that we left.

My Birthday!

My birthday this year turned out to be a two week event, and I loved every minute of it! To start things off two of my very best friends took me out to dinner at Citrus Grill. It's a tradition of ours to take each other out for birthdays. Thanks so much guys! The gals.

Then unfortunately on my birthday I had an exciting fun filled work day from 10-7, but I was still able to squeeze some celebration in. First we went to Ruth's diner for breakfast up Emigration Canyon. Their biscuits are always delightful. Preston got me hiking shoes and and cute pearl earrings with a matching necklace.This is us at breakfast. Look how yummy it looks!

Then for dinner we headed to Ruth Chris steakhouse. It is amazing. If you have never been there you should go. You will never have a better steak. It is well worth the price. This is the family at dinner. It was amazing!

My dessert the chocolate duo (lava cake and mousse) was super yummy. My mom also ordered pear sparkling cider that was already waiting at our table when we sat down. My parents got me a cute dress for work and running shoes.

This is my amazing chocolate duo desssert, with the cute little birthday candle!

My cute inlaws also came over when we got home to give me their present. They got me the cutest skirts and tops for work. The next day my mom made me my favorite yogurt pie since we had had dessert at the restaurant on my birthday. My cute friend Linds came over and gave me the cutest wallet and some yummy lotion. She is such a gem. She even called and sang me happy birthday at 7am on my birthday! Linds your the best!

The delicious cake. You can even see the birthday plates.

You can see in this picture the cute necklace and earrings Pres got me.

To top off an amazing birthday we headed up to the cabin. It was so beautiful I loved every minute! This is the Bird family on the gator. I can't believe how big Sophia is getting!

Em and Ry love riding the horses. Em is a pro, she knows so much about them since she took riding lessons when we were growing up.

The Louder family. Their baby is so cute! Little Abby has so much hair! I love Hailey's face in this picture. She wasn't feeling in the picute mood :-)

This is us in the horse pasture. It was so pretty up there!

This is a shot of the barn and the cabin. The colors were absolutely phenomenal!

It truly was such an amazing birthday. Thanks everyone for making it such a great celebration!

What happens when your hubby cooks dinner

Because of my crazy schedule this semester, I have Preston cook dinner on Thursday. After teaching I hurried home to eat so that we could get to my friend Jeni's play at Hale Center Theater. Well this is what I saw when I walked in the house (just imagine the look on my face.) He was making sloppy joes and I guess the onions were really getting to him and so he looked up online how to avoid crying while chopping onions :-) He said it worked. Snaps for my cute hubby for making dinner and letting me capture this priceless embarrasing picture!

Todd's Birthday

We celebrated Todd's birthday I guess it was a couple of weeks ago now. We went up into the mountains and had a good meal. Miss wasn't feeling so hot, but here are some pictures from the event.



Just enjoying myself, waiting to get grubbing on some good eats.



It was an awesome brownie cake.



There was a really big full moon unfortunatly the camra ruins it a bit.

Happy birthday Todd we love you!

Happy Birthday Miss!!

Its Melissa's birthday today. She is turning 24 on the 24th. Today we went to Ruth's Diner for breakfast and then tonight we are going to Ruth's Chris for dinner. I have to leave my class early to go... I know what you're thinking what a hardship.
Well I wont take up too much space on the blog I am sure we will be posting some pictures soon.

The State Fair!!

I haven't been to the state fair in years, actually the last time I went was back in 2003 when I tried riding one of the bigger rides. If you are ever interested, ask me sometime about my experience... Lets just say I wont be riding any carnival rides for awhile.

I forgot how "diverse" the crowd can be at the fair. Miss and I saw all types of weirdos, but I am glad we can all get together and admire the animals and deep fried everything.

While we were there we watched some truck pulls for about 15 minutes and then the beer and cig smoke finally got to us. Interesting story while were watching the pulls the guy standing behind us was a real winner! He was wearing a pair of crappy cowboy boots wranglers that have well seen their prime and a wife beater. He even had a cowboy hat and he had his cigarettes tucked under one of the straps of the beater. Here is the best picture we could get of him without being noticed.

We had to pretend we were taking a picture of me, but if you look close you can see his cigarettes under his strap.

There really isn't a whole lot to do at the fair so we decided to take a look at all of the animals. I had to endure the constant " Can we get one :) " from Miss when we were looking at the rabbits. I am convinced that one day we will have an entire farm at our house. Miss loves animals, side story once we were driving up to Miss's parents and a rabbit ran in front of our car and I hit it. It was a total accident, but you would have thought I ended the world. Luckily Miss found it in her heart to forgive me. Note to self don't hit bunny rabbits.


Here is one of the rabbits Miss wishes we could have bought. Hopefully one of these days we will actually buy a home and we can have wild animals of our own, or we can buy a rabbit or a dog. When I say wild animals I really mean kids.


All of the animals were pretty tired by the time we got to the fair. Miss liked how they were all piled on each other.

I will say the fair does a really good job of making you feel like your health and food cleanliness is their priority. If you cant sense my sarcasm then let me explain. All of the food vendors and carnies usually smell bad and look pretty disgusting. The vendor shacks look like they haven't been cleaned in years.


Here is the Fair's attempt to make us feel like this is a clean place.



We tried to get a picture with the rides. It didn't work too well.


We finished off our night with a four dollar ride down the big yellow slide. Its a state fair favorite.

To everyone that said they were going to go with us and didn't, you missed out. We had a fun night wondering around and people watching. The fair sure isn't the coolest place, but the atmosphere is enjoyable and I am glad I have someone to share the fun with. Thanks Miss for going with me.

Cecret Lake and Snowbird

For my new job, we had a retreat up at snowbird. It was fun to meet some of the new teachers, and I am now certified in CPR. The retreat was also a great chance to hear some "food for thought" and words of advice. We were blessed to hear John Bytheway speak to us everyday! (partly due to the fact that his kids go to our school ;-) The only downside of the retreat was that I still had to drive down to the U every day and it was the first time Preston and I have ever slept apart :-( One cute story about the retreat was that as I was checking in for my room, the lady looked over at Emilee and was like I think I have a package for you. As Em started to unwrap it, the package started ringing!!! And she pulled out a brand new iphone from her hubby. He had even programmed his picture to pop up when he called. Lucky girl! No wonder why she didn't return my text earlier, he had had her other phone shut off! That girl goes through phones like crazy! Her other one was a couple months old and the buttons were already falling off :-) The one funny thing about the Cliff Lodge is the shower, there is a window that looks into the bedroom while you shower! Apparently this is so you can look at the mountains while you shower. My thought is Sure.... You be the judge!

This is a view looking into the shower from the bedroom!

This is the view from the shower looking into the bedroom "and at the mountains"

Preston and I headed up to Cecret Lake by Alta for Labor Day. He had never been there! How crazy is that! It was such a beautiful day! Can you believe that it snowed up there two days later? Funny story about that is that a guy who had come into the pharmacy and had gotten pretty upset the day before was the one who was driving the shuttle up to the trailhead. Thank goodness for dark sunglasses :-)

Preston was complaining the other day that the only pictures we have in our house are either of us or me, so maybe I will print this one off and frame it :-)Not to mention the fact that we suck at taking our own picture! Usually one of our heads is cut off!They had these cute salamanders that all of the kids enjoyed catching, not to mention Preston!