Valentine's 2013

Valentine's Day ended up being a fairly busy day. But we were able to squeeze a little fun celebrations in here and there. I started the festivities with getting Valentine's donuts for my team at work....which wasn't super helpful on my diet but absolutely delicious.

One of my employees is a guy from my ward and when my team was in chatting/eating donuts he asks me if it was Ryan he saw earlier carrying flowers into our house. I told him it must not have been because I didn't get any flowers this morning, and right then the receptionist walked in with this BEAUTIFUL bouquet of daisies. (My favorite flowers) It was perfect timing.

Throughout the day I also received valentines from my Visiting Teachers, Stacy, my parents, Ryan's dad, and of course Ryan! I was absolutely spoiled.

The cute purse Ryan got me!

When I got home I made a nice dinner that we ate by candlelight. It was pretty nice to take it easy at home and not have to brave the crowds at the restaurants. I made a steak dinner with Pizza Factory bread-twists, caesar salad, chocolate-covered strawberries, and copy-cat Chocolate Molten Lava Cake from Chili's. Too bad we were too stuffed to really enjoy it.

I got Ryan an overnight stay up at a Bear River Lodge that comes with an entire day of snowmobiling.

 He's been so obsessed with snowmobiling lately that I knew it would be the perfect gift for him. Then I also got him (ok it's for me too) the 3rd season of the Big Bang Theory. We love that show! Overall it was a nice and relaxing Valentine's day. I can't wait to go for our little over-night vacation in a few weeks.

Ice & Jazz

This winter has been a killer! I know you all hear me when I say I'm SO done with winter. Can I get an AMEN! It has really taken a toll on my body with the several falls I've taken. The worst being the morning with the nice thin sheet of invisible ice. There was no hope when I walked out onto my concrete stairs with my high-heel boots. Needless to say, the ice-covered railing did no good to help soften the blow to my back.

Milo and Pumpkin are also sick of the weather. The poor boys gets so bored being stuck inside every day. And unfortunately sometimes that boredom gets taken out on innocent objects. Thus, we are making frequent trips to get pet toys for them to take their frustration out on.

It's amazing I was able to get them to sit for this picture. Appreciate

However we have seemed to have a few fun outings despite the horrific weather. First being a fun night going to a Jazz game. Ryan had been dying to take the new Front Runner up to SLC, so that day we decided that a Jazz game would be a good reason to make the trek. Luckily Chelsie and her boyfriend Brian were up to going with us even though the short notice. It was a super fun double date. We met up at the Provo Front Runner station and then headed up to the game. At the game, we look over to the section next to us and who could it be?....Stacy and Zach with all of Zach's family. Hehe. We knew they were going to the game, but we thought there was no way we'd actually see them. Small world.

 After the game we found Stacy and Zach and then headed over to the Gateway for some frozen yogurt.

Then Chelsie, Brian, Ryan and I headed home on the Front Runner. We really liked taking the Front Runner. It's a lot nicer when you are with a group because you can chat the whole time and not need to worry about driving or parking. I see us taking it to SLC often in the future.

One of the few days I was happy to see the snow was the Saturday Ryan and I went skiing up at Sundance. One of the Big 4 accounting firms sponsored a ski day, so it was only $10/person to go. It was actually a really fun day. I'm SLOWLY getting better at skiing and Ryan was really patient with me. The firm also catered our lunch, so after skiing in the morning we had lunch on them. We were able to talk to a bunch of accountants in the firms about different locations, etc. We are very slowly starting to narrow down our decision on where we want to go after Ryan graduates. Argh- it's so hard to make decisions.

Thanks all for now. Loves

Mile High City

A few weeks ago Ryan & I decided to drop everything and go to Denver. Actually, I guess if we are being honest here we did have it on the calendar for months but we didn't really think the weather would permit us to go and sort of put it out of our minds. Until about Wednesday the week of we realized that we FOR REALS could go! We set off Friday afternoon and had the BEST time driving there. We have both been so busy lately that we haven't had time to talk. 8 hours in the car together helped a bit getting caught up and the drive seemed to go by in a wink. We stayed with Ryan's brother Richard and his family. It really has been such a treat traveling to all Ryan's siblings who we usually only seen every other year. And we got to meet baby Brian, who is super adorable!

Joe's pouty face

Cute Miss Rachel

Just a little Sorry in the morning

This must by Laura's T-rex impression

Saturday Richard took Ryan, Mom, and I out to see downtown Denver! Which we completely feel in love with. Denver is so fun with everything you need but it's still clean and has a hometown feel. We definitely could see ourselves living here in the future.

We took the light rail to downtown

Love this picture, they look so thoughtful when really they didn't know I was taking it

Talking to Clay on the phone

Lobby of the building Richard works in

For lunch we went to an Indian Buffet!!! We were stoked. Indian's kinda our new favorite

My first plate- picture worthy

We might move here just for this Indian restaurant

 Richard and Julienne live in Highlands Ranch. Which is basically heaven on earth. It's a HUGE HOA where there's several rec centers/club houses. There's long trails in between all the houses and the neighborhood just looks amazing. We were sold to say the least.

View of Denver from Highlands Ranch

Rolling in the 12-seater van

 We also got to go to one of Joe's basketball games. He's such a great little player.. maybe the next Jimmer?

 We definitely got our dance on, that's a must.

And ate some AMAZING food Mom & Julienne prepared for us!

 And played a few games.

Where's Rachel!?

Found her

We were even lucky enough to stop by and see our friends Cambria & Evan Gunnell who are living in Denver for a bit. It was seriously such a fun trip. It went by so fast but I feel like we crammed a lot in during the time we had. Thanks Richard and Julienne for letting us come crash for a few days. IT was great!