Just Can't Get Enough...

...of these CDs. Pretty sure they haven't left my CD player for about a month.

Family Pics

We decided to get some more recent pics taken since it's been a few years. My brother-in-law's little sister took these and I really liked how they turned out. She picked the perfect park for the fall colors and I loved it.

Happy Halloween!

Our festivities this year consisted of a couple of parties and hanging out with the fam! I love little kids in their costumes, so I always end up with my family and their kids. We took them around trick-or-treating and ate way too much junk, but it was fun! Hope you all had a fun holiday as well!

Dwight Schrute
Witch

Lilah

Isaac and Ruby

Jonah and Ruby

Zoe

Caleb, Isaac, Me

The Trick-or-Treaters

Anniversary Activities

Since our anniversary fell on a Tuesday, we didn't get to do anything too exciting that day. But this weekend we made up for it! I scored a $50 room at the Hilton in downtown Salt Lake (Priceline negotiator), so we headed there for something slightly out of the ordinary for us.

Anyone that knows me knows I love plays, and I seek them out pretty much anywhere that I am. I blame my family. So my sister Erin and her husband Troy, joined us on Friday night at the West Valley Hale Theater for a play called Curtains. I am usually pretty impressed with Orem's Hale Theater so I figured I'd be safe with this, plus the play just won 9 Tony awards on Broadway, pretty hard to be disappointing with that track record.

Us in front of the theater.

It was so pretty inside and out, we loved it. If I knew we'd be staying in Utah after next spring I'd probably want season tickets here because they have an awesome line up for the upcoming season...
So the play was a murder-mystery/comedy/musical. It was so cute and funny and the cast was really good. I highly recommend it, we all really enjoyed it.

After being pampered at the hotel we headed to the Gateway to hang out. Jord has really wanted to see Where the Wild Things Are (even though he's never read the book, really?) So I consented.
While the special effects were quite amazing, the story itself was kind of lacking. It was pretty slow and definitely a one time show for me, but I guess I'm glad I saw it.

We finished our day off with shopping around and lunch at Z'Tejas. Jord absolutely loves this place, I think it's the closest thing he's found to real Tex-Mex in Utah. He really misses the great state of Arizona sometimes, especially in that regard.

It was so nice to have a couple of days to just relax and do whatever without worrying about everything else. I'm so glad we got a nice little break from our typical day-to-day!

Happy Anniversary!

Today marks 3 years for us! Every year just keeps getting better, we've definitely learned a lot and come a long way since the day we were married. We look forward to many happy and memorable years to come!

Bright Star

My sister, Erin, and I got to go see this last night. It is only at one theater in Salt Lake and one in Park City (at least here in Utah), so it was hard to find! This film was so beautifully done and the acting was incredible. It is about the poet John Keats, who I didn't know really anything about, so it was fun to learn a little bit about his life. I love period pieces so I was excited, especially for something new. It is more on the serious side, and kind of slow moving, so make sure you aren't tired to be able to fully appreciate it. And if you're anything like me, it will make you feel like couples and love are so lame nowadays compared to people like this...too bad we can't all have poetic relationships...

Congratulations...

...to my wonderfully talented sister, Erin, and my equally talented niece Abby! They have both landed roles in South Jordan's production of Annie! Erin got the role of Grace, and Abby is the understudy for Annie, which we are all hoping involves some potential matinee performances, or that the other girl gets mysteriously ill...he he. But Abby will also be one of the orphans so she will have a lot to learn! They are both so great at singing and acting and we are so excited for them to get to do this together. The play will be this November so anyone in the area, watch out for dates so you can see these rising stars!

Back to School...

During this past week Jordan and I both started school again. Jordan was completely excited to get back into it, he missed having classes this summer. I'm starting to worry that he wants to be a lifelong student....let's hope not. But lucky for us, this is our last year of undergrad and living in Provo! Jordan graduates in April, and I, being the ultra-slacker that I am, will have my Associates finished by April. I've got a much better class line-up than my summer semester, so I can't complain. We are excited to be moving on to new and different opportunities once we're done here, and we're doing our best to enjoy all we can about Provo while we're here. This semester will be extremely busy for both of us, we won't see much of each other but at least we have a Sunday once a week to keep us sane. Good luck to all you other students starting up yet another semester, let the fun begin!

Church History and Coming Home

Before Jordan and I left Michigan we were able to drive out to Kirtland, Ohio and visit the main church attractions. It was about a 3 hour drive there and while I was less than thrilled to spend our last Saturday driving and being tourists instead of relaxing, I was really glad we went. We took lots of picutres there, too many to post. I really learned a lot about the early Saints in Kirtland and the LDS church's tours were amazing. It was a little strange to go to the Kirtland temple and have a tour from a different church, but they still did a good job and it was neat to see the first temple ever built in Joseph Smith's time.

Us in front of the temple.

It decided to rain pretty hard that day, luckily most of our touring was over when it started.

On our drive home to Utah we had the privilege to spend a day in Nauvoo. I had been there when I was 16, but Jord had never been so it was exciting for us to go. We woke up as early as possible and made the first temple session that morning, which was amazing. The interior of the temple is incredible, patterned after the original Nauvoo Temple. We didn't have near enough time to see everything, but we got to see a lot of the Joseph Smith sites, Carthage Jail, and did the wagon ride to see the highlights. We'd love to go back there someday and spend more time on everything.

We really loved this experience and were so glad we took the time to stop. The Pioneers made such huge sacrifices and it was neat to see a lot of their history. It took us another 18 hours driving in a car to get to Utah, and I was so tired of the trip by the time we got home. But just thinking of how long it took the Pioneers to make the trek made it a little easier! It's good to be home and back in the grind, but it is always sad when fun summers come to an end...

Cedar Point

This past weekend our friends Bryce and Camille came up to our neck of the woods and we headed to Sandusky Ohio to Cedar Point! In case you don't know (like I didn't) Cedar Point is the #1 Roller Coaster Park in the World. It was about a two hour drive for us, and unfortunately we had stayed up way too late the night before we went so we were all a little tired throughout the day, but it was a lot of fun.

Bryce, Camille and baby Graham all ready to go. Poor Graham was sick, but he was so good throughout the day.

Me and Jord


This is what you see when you walk in. We were so good and got there before they had even opened the rides, so we had to chill for a bit before we got going. How's that for ambititous?



Meet Ride #1. This is the Millenium Force. We decided to do one of the biggest ones first to get a good thrill and hopefully not wait in a really long line. We definitely got our thrill with this one! The first drop is 300 ft high, you go about 92 mph and my legs were like jello after we got off. We decided this was our favorite.

Does that make your hair curl just looking at it? Try going up that sucker, while looking over at the water right next to you, all the while knowing there is not one thing you can do to turn back! Super intense.

The next ride was Thunder Canyon, but only the boys participated in this one, Camille and I didn't want to get wet (mostly me). The boys were sure they wouldn't even get wet...

...they were sorely mistaken.

Our next stop was this big wooden rollercoaster, Mean Streak. The boys went first and told us it was super jerky and killed their backs. So we opted for the very front when we got up there and it was really fun! We didn't get jerked around at all, just enjoyed the ride.

Here we come to the highlight of the day, the Top Thrill Dragster. The entire ride lasts only 17 seconds, you go from 0-120 mph in about 4 seconds. You also climb 420 feet to the top. The anticipation on this one was killer, but the ride was over so fast that you really couldn't even register how high you just were. Looking at it was much scarier.

A closer view of the top, the track twisted right near the top on the way up and on the way down, very fun.

Bryce and Camille waiting to take off

Me and Jord waiting to take off, I was so nervous it was going to take off while I was smiling at the camera, so I couldn't quite relax, if you can't tell.

This one was really fun, but made us a little dizzy. It's called the Raptor, and you are dangling the whole time so it's really fun. It had lots of loops and corkscrews throughout the entire ride, but since the track is above you, you never know what's coming.

Our last stop was The Mantis. On this one you are actually standing the whole time and we got seats near the front to have a better view. It was a lot of fun too, but you had to be careful with your head so it didn't get knocked around too much.

Me and Camille waiting to go.

Bryce snapped this pic of us while we were on it, but you can't really see us.


This right here was Graham's entertainment for the day. He loved the maps, he went through a couple of them during the day.

The day was definitely a success. There were quite a few rides we had to miss out on just because it was so crowded and the lines were so long. We for sure could have spent another day there, but time did not permit. We tried to shove as many rides in as possible, but by about 8:00 we were totally wiped and ready to head home. It was a lot of fun and if you ever have the chance to go, do it! Thanks again Bryce and Camille for heading out to do this, wouldn't have been the same without you!

The Henry Ford

Jordan and I spent Saturday at the Henry Ford Museum. It was very different from what I expected. I'm usually pretty interested in museums in general, but I wasn't sure if I would care much about this one, but I was wrong! It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it. Along with the museum we went to the Rouge Factory where all of the cars are assembled, it was pretty cool too.

In front of one of the older Ford models at the Rouge.

If I remember right this was actually used by farmers, they had some intense equipment back then!

These cars were part of the "Rock n Roll Cars and Guitars" exhibit

This is a Buick Skylark, but I don't remember the year or who owned it, I just thought it was fun. And it was huge!

This was once owned by Elvis Presley, it is a Cadillac Eldorado

Rocky Nelson's car

These are some old dollhouses..I would have loved these when I was little

This is the chair that Abraham Lincoln was assasinated in.

The Wright Brothers first plane!


There was lots more to see, but as is standard with museums, we were moving faster the longer we were there so there weren't as many pictures getting taken toward the end. I really enjoyed it because it was very American and so I felt pretty proud to have lived in such an amazing place that has overcome so much. If you're ever in Michigan, this museum would for sure be worth your time.