Happy Birthday to me!

That time of year has come and gone again and I have gotten another year older. What happened to the times that you looked forward to getting older and having your birthday?
The birthday celebration started off Wednesday night when my friends took me to see Brain Regan. We had a lot of fun and can I tell you that man is so funny. I had the privilege to see him the next night too. Aaron and I had bought tickets before my friends surprised me with tickets to go with them, but like I said, he is so funny it was great to see him twice. So Thursday night Aaron and I went with some friends of ours. I had a lot of fun and had some good laughs.















It continued onto Friday, the real birthday....I didn't have to work Friday and I was able to spend the day how I wanted to. I started off the day by getting a pedicure which is always so relaxing. After that I then met up with my friend Missy and we had lunch.


I then went over and spent sometime with my sister in law and two very cute niece's and did a little shopping with them.
When Aaron got home from work, he took me out to eat at my favorite place....Texas Roadhouse. YUMMY!
Overall it was a great day! Just got to exclude that getting older part. That is tough but we all seem to get over it.
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, cards, phone calls....EVERYTHING!
I have great family and friends!
Love you all!

Lake Powell at last....

You would think that with growing up in Arizona and traveling to Utah through Page, we might have stopped and at least stood on the beach of Lake Powell but that never happened. Now after 28 years of my life I finally made it there.

Aaron and I spent 4 days in Powell with my friend and her husband. (yes she is my coworker too, but she is a friend and that is the most important part.) We had a great time and got quite lucky when I came to weather. We were able to sit on the beach where we camped without any neighbors and watch some amazing lightning storms followed by some beautiful rainbows.










Just sitting on the beach watching the waves, lightning, rainbows come and go....it's just so beautiful and amazing to watch the world work and SOOO RELAXING!!

We did attempt the whole water skiing things but yeah, it didn't work so well for us. We both tried and almost got up but, that is as far as it took us. To bad we are not pros like those that we were with.

That would be Steve...Pro
And that is Janet the Pro
Yep here is the amateur...closest I got to getting up.
and if you look hard through the water, you will see Aaron almost up.

I got to thinking about it and I think the last time that I tried to water ski was in 7th grade when we went to Bartlet Lake for Dusty's Birthday Party. WOW! how the years go by.


As I would wake up every morning I had the most beautiful view out our tent. I would sit there for a good hour plus and watch the sun come up over the mountains and the lake. One morning I finally convinced myself to grab the camera and take some pictures even though I knew it would wake Aaron up. (it's through the mesh so it's not the best but it's still beautiful to me)



We took a day trip and went to Rainbow Bridge. That is such a beautiful and spectacular site.


We had such a fun time and look forward to our next trip back to Lake Powell.
Thank you Janet and Steve!

Braking Dawn Girls Night

Okay so I am not done reading New Moon but I was invited by a friend in the ward to join her and some of the young woman and leaders in the ward to go to WalMart at 10:00pm on Friday August 1st. Yes, we stood in line with many others to get the new book. Now those of you who know me know that I am a people watcher and dang were there plenty of people to watch. It was quite interesting. At the front of the line stood....okay sat 3 men. Now were they given the choice to either put the kids to bed or go get the book for their wife? Who knows. But it was fun to be with some of the girls from my ward. After they all got their books and we all checked out, the group of 18 of us went over to IHOP for a girls birthday breakfast. YES, breakfast at 1:00am....crazy I know. Just like the old days, but dang I am to old for that now. I have tried to force myself to sit and read more so that I can get to Braking Dawn but you know when you see the weeds and bushes out of control, laundry piling up as well as the dishes in the sink starting to smell, you put the book down. Maybe one day I will get New Moon finished and attempt to read eclipse. Sorry to all of you that I have offended who have read the book more than once, I promise I will get there and THEN and ONLY THEN can you discuss the book with me.

Yes some could not wait til we were out of WalMart to get started.

Others waited but not long, yes they all had their noses in the book while we were at IHOP. But they did stop long enough for a photo.

Family Festivities

July started out and finished with quite a bit of family fun. We started off the month with my family coming up the second week of the month for a early 80th birthday for my grandmother (my mom's mother). That was a lot of fun to be able to get together with the aunts and uncles and cousin on that side. We used to get together more often but it hasn't been happening as much anymore. We had a day full of fun and a little structure trying to get family photos.

This is grandma and her grandchildren. We are missing 5 of the grandchildren but we had to get a photo with those that were there.
It looks like our engagement photos all over again. Just 2 1/2 years of marriage photos instead.

We even got Grandma to take the first swings at her pinata.


The family then stayed around for that week and we were able to do a lot of fun things.....from going up American Fork Canyon to fish


....family night in the park

Really when was the last time that you got at the top of that hill, laid on your side and rolled down a hill? Yeah it's been quite sometime for me, but let me tell you that was so much fun!
I was unable to join them for the trip to the dinosaur museum but it looks like they had a lot of fun and weigh as much as a dinosaur all put together.

But they did seem to escape the jaws of the shark and get to safety...

We also went to Ragging Waters one day with the family. It's amazing how much fun you can have ALL DAY in the sun.
EVERYONE joined in the fun in the water, yes even Grandma....

By the end of the day everyone is tuckered out....

We ended the week off with a family reunion on my Dad's side. We got quite a few of us there for it being a short but sweet reunion. We went up Provo Canyon and had a nice picnic.
There was plenty of time for lost of visiting and of coarse the family group photos. We had all but three in our family photo, my husband who came and did his part had gone home, Drew had to stay home and work and Elder Scott of coarse was not given permission to leave Veracruz, Mexico for a few hours to come to a family reunion. It's great to see grandpa with his kids, and look he had them all there, all the 6 original.

It is great to know that you have a great family that love and support you. It's also fun getting together for reminiscing and getting a good laugh.

summer activities

I can not come up with enough words to keep saying..."way past due update/post" Yeah I suck!
Any how here we go again....
You know when you have a file of photos on your computer labeled 2008 unsorted, you are behind in life.

Lets go back to the beginning of June. Aaron's parents came and stayed with us for a night after his mom did a 104 mile bike ride up in Logan. She tried to get me to do it with her but yes I wimped out and didn't. You know riding a mountain bike on the road is much harder and since that is all I have is a mountain bike, I didn't want to make the 104 miles feel like 200 miles. I am not up for that yet!
So that Sunday we went for a drive up to Cascade Springs which is up in the Wasatch Mountains only minutes from us. I LOVE living close to the mountains. I really enjoy going up to Cascade Springs in the fall too. Such a great place to take photos. And just to walk around on a nice day for a little fresh air. That is one thing that we do love to do is go up in the mountains and get away from the city. You will notice we do that quite a bit with his parents. Whether it is just for a drive, to hike, camp, fish, or ride the 4 wheelers, we go out quite a bit. The men fish and the ladies visit or read a book. I am okay with that.

The next weekend his parents were back up for a family reunion. We went to the zoo for the day then back to my house for a BBQ. Turns out it was me with his parents, younger brother and one sister and her 3 boys at the zoo. Aaron was out of town and not home yet, one sister was moving and 8 months pregnant and then one brother and his family live out of state and couldn't come. But we still had a lot of fun. Here is an albino alligator that was at the zoo, kinda cool.

Oh and lets see....biggest news of all, ha ha! Yes I have joined my husband and I am not bowling with him. Back in May he and I joined the couples bowling league. Yeah no worries I am NO good. But I have fun and get better every week. But there is now need to say my average, still not good enough yet. We do have lots of fun though. It's just once a week and it is something that he and I can get out of the house and do together. NO that is not my only form of exercise, you may think it is but I do try to get out a bit more than just bowling cause you don't get that heart rate up that much okay at all, unless you are like me and just worked up cause you are not doing all that well.

Last week Aaron and I took a day off of work and headed down south to go ride the 4 wheeler and do some camping. We meet up with his dad on Friday to ride and then he headed home and Aaron and I found a VERY nice camping spot. We then got up Saturday and rode some more. By the end of Saturday night I was ready for a river to jump in or a shower. So we decided to go to his parents house and clean up and stay there for the night. Nothing like dirt in EVERY area of your body. You can't wash your hair enough after being on the 4 wheeler for 2 days in the dirt. But don't get me wrong, it's way fun! I just can't wait til I get my own.







There is nothing like some of the views and scenery that you get up in the mountains.














Sometimes when Aaron is off fishing I will just wonder around and take photos. Some are of him fishing and others are just of things that I see that I like flowers, waterfalls, animals, the river....just whatever catches my eye.

Well last weekend, Aarons younger sister had her second baby. We were on our way home from camping and I called to see if we could take her oldest so that she could have a few minutes to rest after moving all week. Little to my knowladge she was at the hospital and had the baby. Little behind we are. So we went home and cleaned up and of coarse I was over at the hospital just 6 hours after she was born holding her. Can I tell you how stinking cute she is. I just love holding brand new babies. It was way fun. They have been down at her parents house this week so I haven't gotten to hold her every day like I would have had I had my way.

Then this past Friday night I went out to dinner with the girls from my old singles ward that I used to hang out with and to the Tim McGraw concert. Oh to have a girls night again. That was way fun! And who better to see then Timmy. WOW! He puts on a great show.That is my friend Missy and I. I think she and I enjoyed ourselves the most. The others didn't seem that into it, but it didn't bother she and I, we still had fun. Oh and can I tell you, people watching was great! It's great to have good friends in your life. Some of them are just always there for a good time.

Our New Toy

So we justified buying this toy but I guess we are a few months late. And watch we won't get the snow next year like with did this year. But yes we have added a 4wheeler to our family. We were able to go down to Monroe and try it out with Aaron's parents. Yes it was a lot of fun but I have a husband who totally knows what he is doing but can still get quite a scare out of me. Boy he was trying everything to get that thing stuck and try out all the bells and whistles on it. No luck getting it to stuck, the thing works to well. And I even got to drive it, yes I was MUCH more timed than Aaron was.

So then this is what

I wake up to this morning......
but as you can tell there wasn't enough for
him to get on that new toy of his and plow....
we will wait til next year. I HOPE!
I am so ready for Spring!

For all you in Phoenix, will you please send Spring our way--PLEASE!

True Friends

You know it's amazing to go home to Phoenix and to see so many friends and to know that they really do care about you and no matter what has happened between us we can still call each other friends. I went home with my grandmother for my spring brake. It's nice when you have a boss that takes time off when his kids have time off. Yes its a lot of time and the pay check stink, but it's so nice to be able to have sometime to do things you want to do. I was able to have dinner with some girls from high school, lunch with a high school friend and spend a few minutes talking to some other high school friends while I was at a church function. No matter if we had hours to talk or just a minute, it was so good to reconnect with them all and to know that I have friends back home that I love seeing and catching up with. Now that most of us have jumped on this "blogger-wagon" it will be so much easier to feel apart of each of their lives and know what is happening with their lives and growing families. No matter which way our lives take us, I still feel a closeness with all the girls I was able to see and visit with. Thank you all for being such great friends and taking time out of your busy lives to see me and get together with others. I really do cherish the friendships that I have even though we are miles apart. PLEASE feel free to come visit anytime....with your family or just yourself. I love having visitors. I have made some great friends since I have moved up here to Utah but I know that I will always have true friends from back in high school. Is that not amazing, as I look back at my time in high school, we had our rough times and our petty little girl fights but you know what, we have gotten past that and we are still great friends. It's just wonderful to know that we can forgive and forget and move on. I do have to say that I wish I would have taken more photos with the friends that I got to see. Pictures are priceless. Thank you all for being such great friends! I love you all girls!

I was able to spend sometime with my sister and her family on the way to and from Phoenix. It had been about 6 months since I had seen them and I am so happy I got to see them. They are such a fun and cute family. My niece and nephew finally got me to see high school musical which I had never seen. It is a cute movie, the part I saw. We didn't watch it all cause those poor kids were quite tiered. It was fun being able to see them play soccer and see how much they have learned. I love you kids!