18 Years Going Strong!

We had a wonderful day celebrating our anniversary.

When Mike asked me what I wanted to do for our date, it was easy...

I asked him to take me to the BYU Ballroom Dance company performance. 

They have this every year right around our anniversary...just for us, ha ha! 

On our way there.

It was so good! I absolutely love watching these talented dancers!! 

It's especially fun to watch our friends Jessica Kirkham and Kayci (Kirkham) & Casey Treu 

(We even lucked out and got to visit with Tracy and Paula Kirkham after the show for a few minutes)

They are amazing! So amazing!

In fact you should check out Kayci & Casey"s facebook page 

Oh, before we got to BYU for the show we visited the two apartments we used to live in when we were first married.

Our first address

 Our second

 We were the top apartment.

I remember those stairs very well!

Anyway, after the show we went to the temple.

We did sealings and it was particularly special because we were able to do the sealing for Mike's maternal grandma and grandpa. Now they kind of share an anniversary with us :)

We went to dinner at Red Robin (because we had a gift card and felt like it). 

We beat the dinner rush and had a great dinner and got in and out pretty quickly.

Then we went to Cold Stone for a treat. Yum!

(yes we purposefully aimed our spoons to our noses...we are weird!)

Happy Anniversary to us!

My Birthday

My kids all wore purple for me to grant one of my birthday wishes :)

I love it!

 ...and I really love their goofiness :)

I also got an extra hour for my birthday,

who wouldn't love that!

I taught in Relief Society that day too.

It was a lesson on prayer and I sang a song at the beginning of it.

I sang Prayer is the Soul's Sincere Desire, the Sally DeFord arrangement.

I think it went pretty well.

The RS Presidency stopped by and gave me a little birthday gift, that was nice of them.

I watched some Little House on the Prairie and Leave it To Beaver with the kids.

Mike had to be at drill today so he was gone most of the day,

but when he finally got home he took some time to spoil me a little too :)
Since he knew he would have to be gone on my birthday he took me out on Saturday night.
We went to a formal event for Corporate Alliance.

We both agreed upon arriving there that "formal" here is a little
different than in Washington D.C. We felt a little overdressed at first,
but then decided not to worry about it and have a good time.
(There were some other people that were dressed formal too, so we weren't alone)
Anyway, the dinner was delicious and it was just nice to spend time with my man!
Oh and he also gave me some cute flowers

All in all, it was a nice, happy, relaxing, good birthday!

Celebrating 17 years together!

We started out our Anniversary celebrations by heading up to Salt Lake City and checking into our room at the Anniversary Inn. We stayed in the Swiss Family Robinson Suite. It was really cool. The bed was in a tree and the shower was a waterfall. 

Then we went to Rodizio Grill for dinner. We we able to sit by the window overlooking Trolley Square. We had a delicious dinner...tasty meat, pineapple, pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread) and shared a crème brûlée for dessert.

We headed back to the Inn and watched Thor 2 since Mike hadn't seen it.

The next day we started off with our complimentary breakfast, it was perfectly delicious.

Then we noticed that many of the room doors were open and we were allowed to go and look at a lot of the different themed rooms. I think we will go back again, it was fun and different and the staff was super nice!

After checking out we went to DSW and did some shoe shopping. I had been wanting to find some new dress boots, and I was hoping that I'd be able to find some in the clearance section since it's not really boot season anymore. I was so happy that I found several pairs...including a cute pair of purple boots...yes I know I'm ridiculous :)

We had a lovely little getaway together...and we will get more time together too since I get to go with Mike to D.C. when he leaves here. I'm really looking forward to that!

42

I had a pretty good birthday this year.

Nothing spectacular, but it's not really a milestone birthday so that's ok.

I hung out with my kids

Anna gave me a cute present, a dish with some of her Halloween candy that she knows I like.

The weather was beautiful

Talked to Mike

We went to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner, some of my family joined us

Watched 42, pretty good movie

Got flowers from Mike

Here's how they looked out of the box 

then once they started to bloom

then when I forgot to put more water in

(hey the vase isn't see-through so it's harder to remember)

then after I put more water in :)

I was actually amazed at how well they perked up!

On Sunday we had dinner with my family and Melanie made my delicious birthday "cake" which wasn't a cake at all...it was a super yummy, gooey, warm cookie baked in a skillet with vanilla ice cream and caramel on top...so so good!! Still can't believe she had enough little cast iron skillets to make one for everyone! She's the best!

New Beginnings and Court of Honor

On Wednesday the 30th I went with Grace to New Beginnings.

I can hardly believe it!

While it seemed a little strange at first that she will be joining the Young Women this year, it really was exciting too.

The Young Women put on a nice program and helped to explain each of the values to the girls who would be turning 12 this year.

They had cupcakes decorated for each of the values. 

Here she is with a virtue cupcake :)

 Each of the young girls also received a special necklace.

Grace was so excited to get hers and I can tell that she is really looking forward to joining the Young Women organization when she turns 12.

That same night there was a Court of Honor.

Dallin was awarded the horsemanship merit badge.

He really had a good time earning it.

Noah received the personal management merit badge

and the camping merit badge.

I also was surprised by an award that Mike arranged for me to be given.

I was awarded the Shield of Service from our District.

I wasn't expecting it and was a little caught off guard, but it was nice to be recognized for what I have done with our Cub Scouts :)

NYC - Day 5

Day 5

This was our last day, and it wasn't even a full day at that.

Constance left at noon, I had to catch my bus at 3:30

and the others had to leave for the airport around that time too.

Anyway, we still had a good day.
First we went to Magnolia Bakery for some muffins

...we went back later for cupcakes :)

Then we walked down to the United Nations Building

On our walk to lunch I took some random pictures
an interesting circle building
no corner offices? or all corner offices?
What do you think?

this building stood on columns
...not sure how I would feel about that!

had to get a shot of this one with the purplish-pinkish part!

These statues made me feel better about the size of my bottom :)

We had lunch at Norma's
(liked their sign projected on the floor)

*My review of Norma's*

nice atmosphere

loved the free little smoothies

great service

HUGE portions, glad I shared with Mom!

After lunch we went back to the hotel and got our bags...
grabbed a couple of taxis and went our separate ways.
...my taxi ride to the bus was terrifying...I was so glad to get out of that car.

Anyway, it was a great little trip.
I loved spending time with my mom and my sisters. 
I really wish Jan had been able to come.
We want to do another trip in a couple of years and have our awesome sisters-in-law come too!

Hmm...I wonder where we should go next time...

NYC - Day 4

Day 4

Started off our day by heading back to FAO Schwarz.

Why?

Because Shell decided that her souvenir/thank you gift

to Dad would be a Muppet :)

(Dad watched Shell's kids so she could go on the trip,

and so that Mom could come too. My Dad is awesome!)

We did our best to get the Muppet to look like Dad,

and I think we did a pretty good job, the only problem

is that they were out of the right hair color.

 Now Dad can sing "Am I a man, or am I a Muppet?"

I think it would be fun to make one of these for Mike and I and the kids :)

Then we stopped by St. Patrick's Cathedral

then we dropped "Dad" off at the hotel.
We saw this car with eyelashes as we were walking :)

Then we headed to Little Italy.

We stopped for some delicious gelato.
I had mango...super yummy!

 Onto Chinatown

don't think I had seen dragon fruit before...
fruit ninja doesn't count :) 

I know I hadn't seen this fruit before, but Shell had.

It is rambutan, she bought a few and showed us how to open it.

I thought it was really good. Yay for trying new things!

 Next stop The Financial District
We took a little break from our walking in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Me doing wall squats on wall street :)

Next we made our way to the September 11th Memorial

It was reverent and emotional there

 Someone had left this rose by a name,
heartbreaking to me...so many people died.

The Survivor Tree

This pear tree survived the attacks of that day

Shell's friend Jan took this picture from her hotel room,
I thought it was a great look at the entire memorial.

Two of the new buildings that are being constructed.

I'm pretty sure that the tallest one on the left was called the Freedom Tower, but is now called One World Trade Center.
I think I remember reading that there will be a total of 5 new buildings.

We were so glad that we were able to go into the memorial.
I would have hated to miss it!

After we left there, we headed over to dinner at Les Halles.

Shell's friend Jan met us there.
She stood in for our sister Jan who couldn't come on the trip.

me, Mom, Shell, Jan, Constance, Shannon and Marcy
*My thoughts on Las Halles*
very good food
reasonably priced
great service, though our waiter did try to lick the table at one point, ha ha!
...my only complaint was that it was too cold in there.