Cancun

Since I'll be having this baby in just over 2 weeks (!!!) I figured I should do some updating on this bloggity blog.

Remember how last summer Austin worked in South Carolina for 4 months?  Well when we eventually came back, we had the chance to go to Cancun with his company.  (This was in November...so I'm obviously behind on this thing.)  We stayed at the Riu Palace Los Americas.  It was amazing!  Since Austin's brother, Dalton, was engaged but not quite married, he had to tag along by himself with us, the old married couple.  We got there early in the morning and even though we were exhausted from the red-eye flight, we found ourselves a pina colada and started off our trip right!

Since we stayed at an all inclusive resort, most of our time was spent either on the beach or in the buffet room eating.  I don't remember where we ate the first night, but we didn't go to the normal buffet and we missed out on some amazing lobster that EVERYONE was talking about.  We went back every night and they never had it again.  Bummer.  The food was great though.  The whole time we were there, we'd compare it to a cruise to see the pros and cons of each.  One thing we liked about a resort is the fact that (at least this one) had a lot of local food, rather than just American type stuff.  I can't even tell you how much guacamole I had over the course of 3 days.  Soooo good.  Plus there was always lots of dessert.

As for our beach time, it consisted of a lot of laying out and hanging out on the beach.  They had a sand volleyball court where we spent lots of time.  With a huge group of salesguys and their wives, there was almost always 6 on 6 playing pretty competitively.  We'd play for a bit then chill and have a pina colada or some other type of frozen deliciousness.  I think we tried every virgin drink they had and the bartenders got sick of us I'm sure, because they finally asked, "What is this group of people here?  I've never made so many virgin drinks before!"  We asked him if they were harder to make than alcoholic ones and he said, "Yes, a lot harder!  You guys actually want them to taste good."  But that didn't stop us from still ordering one every chance we could.  Our favorite was a "coco cobana" which was a mix of pina colada and strawberry daiquiri.  

This drink looks good, but it was super nasty.

They have tons of excursions you can go on, kind of like a cruise.  We went across the street to a little mall and after hours of bartering with a couple excursion people, our group (of 25) decided to go to Tulum to see the ancient ruins as well as some snorkeling in the cenotes.  It was quite the experience to witness the bartering going on to get the deal we got.  We were a huge group of a few technicians, but mostly salesguys.  Because of that, we were at the mall for literally 1-2 hours with one salesguy running back and forth between two different excursion companies trying to get the best deal.  It was hilariously entertaining.  Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of snorkeling, let alone confined spaces...so I took a floatie tube with me to the cenotes and they let me just float around with my feet safely in the air away from creatures. :)  We also took a little tour around a reptile zoo sort of thing.  All I remember is lots of snakes.  Big ones.  We had some authentic Mexican food at lunch.  It was a great excursion!  Don't mind how I look in a hard hat...looks like a trucker with a mullet.

This is Austin & Dalton with their manager, Mark.

The whole trip we'd see people drinking out of coconuts and they looked so tropical and delicious!  We finally got one and I ended up going back to get a Coke because it was disgusting.  Austin and Dalton enjoyed them though.

The rest of the time we just hung out and did nothing, which was the best thing ever.  It was only 3 days, but it was one of the most relaxing trips I've been on.  A funny thing that happened.....

One night we had prime rib (I love prime rib and have never had a problem with meat that is too raw.) and as Austin and Dalton are chowing down, I am completely disgusted by it and couldn't eat even one bite!  If that wasn't weird enough, the next night they had a guy there who was making sushi custom to what you wanted in it.  I got two rolls for all 3 of us and I ended up eating one whole roll and most of the other one, which was super weird because I don't even really like sushi...only the fried kind.  :)  We found out the day we came back that I was pregnant, which totally explained the prime rib/sushi mix up.

It was a short but fantastic trip!  On our red-eye flight home (yikes), I woke up to find Austin's gum squished between my leg and my iPad.  How it got there?  I have no idea, but it was pretty funny.  

These two were jealous of my amazing leg room thanks to my very short legs.

We can't wait to go back to Cancun someday!

Also, the day we came home we were able to meet our new nephew, Jacob Bruiser!  He was born the day before we left.  He looks totally different now obviously, but here are a couple pics of him.  He's such a cutie.

Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer

When I wrote my last post, I was shocked to see I hadn't blogged in 2 years.  Actually, I wasn't shocked, but to be honest, I kind of forgot we had a blog.  Whoops.  So I'll write a few posts on some of the fun things we've done since then, but for now I'll stick to a little catch up for this summer.

This summer was definitely a weird one.  Austin was working in South Carolina for the whole summer (May 1st-August 24thish) working for a security alarm system company, Elite.  He went out with his brother, Dalton, and they did their best to make lots of $$$. We decided (after a loooooong time of going back and forth on what to do) that Austin would go on his own and I would stay in Utah, with my job and our apartment.  So needless to say, it was a really hard summer.  BUT we did both have fun, even apart.  

I spent lots of time with this chica...Austin's sister, Ali.

We went to Ingrid Michaelson, had sleepovers, binged on Netflix, ate lots of popcorn, drank lots of Dr. Pepper, did nails, and got to know each other a lot better.  She's a firecracker and I just love her.

Meanwhile, Austin and his brother had lots o' time to hang out with each other, working hard most of the time...with a little bit of play.

Halfway through, I flew out to S.C. to visit him over 4th of July weekend.

Some highlights of the trip:

-Lots of delicious food (BBQ, Bojangles, Waffle House, and plenty of .88c QT drinks)

-Austin's car breaking down

-Scary close fireworks in the church parking lot

-Following Austin around on jobs and hanging out in random people's houses

When I got home, my family had their annual "cousin camp" with all the grandkids.  My sister was in town from Kansas and we had a blast hanging out, going to a movie, going swimming, and fitting as much as we could into two days.

I spent a lot of this summer babysitting my nieces and nephews...here's one of many pics.

I spent the rest of my summer working on fabric designs and patterns with my sister, Lindsay.  We have been working on a VW bus line for Riley Blake Designs and most recently done some pattern designs to go with the line.  Not sure when it'll be in stores, but sometime in 2016!

Austin surprised me by coming home a week early!  I was planning on having a sleepover with Ali and Dalton's girlfriend, (now fiance) Erin.  We were planning on going to Austin's parents house for the sleepover, so Erin rode Trax home with me and on our way, Austin texted me telling me he needed me to send him a file from our home computer.  So when I pulled up to our house, Erin told me she'd just wait in the car.  I ran inside and started to call Austin as I loaded the computer.  I left the door open and 2 mins after I walked in, I heard footsteps down the stairs.  I yelled (thinking it was Erin) "Did you change your mind?"  Nobody answered...so I walked out from the office and it was Austin with a beard!  I was completely shocked and confused!  Apparently he and Dalton had been driving the last 20 hours to get here, and Dalton had already picked up Erin by the time Austin got inside.  It was crazy!  But I was glad that I didn't have to worry the whole time they drove here, because I had no idea.  We picked up the pizza we had ordered for the girls night and had a party.

The whole point of Austin leaving for the summer (since we've had so many people ask and be weird about it) was so that he could work less during school to have more time for homework.  The nicest thing about him not having a full time job is coming home to stuff like this:

(This meal obviously doesn't look amazing/was still in the kitchen, 

but our little table is set!)

After a few weeks of sharing one car, we bought this beauty!  We like

 to call him Big Red, and my Corolla is now named Lil' Red. 

Since Austin's been home, we've fit in quite a bit.  We got lucky and were able to go to the Taylor Swift concert.  I went to a few concerts this summer while he was gone because he doesn't like them too much.  Taylor was one he actually enjoyed.

We had Lagoon passes for this summer, and I think I went twice the whole time he was gone, so we're going to get our use out of them during Frightmares.  If you want to find us any weekend between now and Halloween, you can find us there.

On Austin's birthday, we went to the Utah vs Utah State game.  This guy loves football, so there wasn't a better way to celebrate than a football game and Hires.

Austin's mom made him two cute books for his birthday.  They were basically a history of his whole life up until now, which I'm so glad to have!  I couldn't help but show these two cute pictures...are you kidding me with the sailor outfit??  And the mouse ears?  Adorable.

Well peeps, that's about it for a random, scattered update!  Congrats if you made it through this whole post!

Weekend Getaway

This year Austin turned 25...so to celebrate him being a quarter of a century, I surprised him with a weekend trip to California to watch BYU play UCLA at the Rose Bowl.  And holy crap, did we fit plenty into 3 days. 

We started out Friday night at the fair...we people watched, sipped on lemonade, and ate a delicious Navajo taco before going home and packing the rest of our night.

Our flight was at 6am...so this is a beautiful picture of us with about 3 hours of sleep.

P.S. One of the main reasons we flew is because Austin turned 25, which means no crazy fees for a rental car!!  We have never flown anywhere together because renting a car is always like 5x more expensive if you're under 25.  So this was really fun to be able to fly together for the first time instead of spending 13 hours in a car!

We got to Cali around 8am and had NO plans.  We have never gone on a trip before without a specific plan (usually down to the hour) of what to do, so we were a little confused.  We decided to drive up to Beverly Hills/Hollywood area and ended up going on one of those "star tour" buses that drove us around to all the celebrity homes.  It was super hot, but it was a perfect way to kill our time until the game at 7:30.

"Go stand by that Will Ferrell star."

"What do you mean?  For a picture?  That's weird."

The bus took us up to this point where you could see all of L.A. and the Hollywood sign...it was so pretty!  We got plenty of comments on our matching shirts, by the way.

At the game.  We were sitting by almost all UCLA fans and they hated us the whole time, up until 3 mins left when they finally were ahead of us.  Such a sad ending :(

The next day we decided to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain.  (We tried to go on Saturday before Hollywood, but we had a sweet coupon they wouldn't accept if it wasn't printed...so we left and came back the next day instead.)  

It was insanely hot and we were both exhausted to the max.  We went to ride X2 first, which is the most insane ride you'll ever ride in your entire life.  We had our phones stuffed in my pockets, our keys in my shirt, and sunglasses in Austins pockets.  The ride definitely ate our sunglasses, but thankfully our phones are still in tact.  

Here's proof of the insanity.  (My sneaky photo taking skills weren't good enough to get Austin in the pic...but his face was even better.)

We rode Tatsu, a flying coaster, after X2 and then made our way to Goliath.  At this point I thought I was literally going to die I was so hot and tired.  Austin was getting there too.  At the end of Goliath, I totally blacked out for a few seconds and couldn't move my head.  It was a little too scary, so we decided to leave after that.  On our way out, we checked the temp at it was 104.  Yikes.  It was still fun, even with the heat stroke.

We ate (mostly) at Denny's, but here's a couple yummy meals we had.  Hot's Kitchen in Hermosa beach was really yummy, even with a tiny burger.  

This was at the Original Pancake house and that fresh strawberry waffle was as good as it looks.

Before we left on Monday night, we fit in a few hours at the beach.  It was so fun to relax for a day after 2 days of craziness.  I sat on the shore and buried myself in sand while Austin swam in the waves.  

There was hardly anyone at the beach, so we took pics of each other and made this delightful collage for your viewing pleasure.

It was a perfect little weekend getaway, but it went by way too fast.

Change...lots of it.

As I was blog stalking the other day, Austin asked me how I never ran out of blogs to read.  He said I should probably be updating ours rather than reading 1,000 blogs belonging to people I don’t even know.  He was right, so here I am! 

Our life has changed quite a bit from the last time I wrote.  We were living in Texas, which was an awesome experience to live away from everyone and learn to rely on each other for everything.  BUT I don’t think we would do it again…not selling pest control at least.  Anyway, since then…we’ve moved into a new apartment, I got a new job, Austin is going to a new school, we’re in a new ward with new callings as well as a new (to us) car.  Talk about change! 

When we got back from Texas, we moved (when I say moved…I mean 2 suitcases and my purse) into my parent’s house until we both found jobs and an apartment.  Thankfully Austin’s work at Zions had just gotten rid of someone so there was an opening right as we got here, so he’s working at Zions again.  As for me, I couldn't find a job (not that I wasn't enjoying it…) BUT we did find an awesome apartment really fast.  It’s a basement apartment in Kaysville and is about 1,000x bigger than our last apt.  We LOVE it.  When we first saw it, the lady that lives upstairs was having her son in law fix a few things in the bathroom before we could move in, so while he was doing that, we painted our butts off.  We painted every room except for the kitchen and painted the cabinets in the kitchen as well.  It looks way better and it was really fun to be able to 1: not have to pay for an apartment we weren't living in yet and 2: make it ours by painting everything (as well as getting reimbursed).  Best thing ever.  AND I didn't have a job at the time so I had all the time in the world to paint and work on projects for our new place.  It was awesome.  I’ll upload some pics of the progress later. 

As for my job situation…in September I got a job at Franklin Covey at the call center for a temporary job until January.  Side story: In September Austin won tickets to the state fair on the radio, so I went to pick them up at Simmons Media and while I was picking them up I thought, “This would be so fun to work here…I wonder if they’re hiring.”  Then, I’m not even kidding you the NEXT DAY my sister Lindsay texts me and says that one of her clients who works for Simmons Media needs some help in her department and is looking for a full time employee to start as soon as they can.  Obviously me and this job were MFEO.  (Made for each other: Sleepless in Seattle)  So I met with her the next day and the day after that she called me to tell me I got the job.  I don’t know why, but I have always wanted to work at a radio station.  I was so excited!  So now I’m working there in the Traffic Department which basically controls all the commercials and their order, frequency, etc.  I have loved it so far, mostly because I’m not in customer service for the first time in my life, I can wear jeans to work, come in at like 9:30-10 and listen to music all day while I solve my commercial puzzle for the next day.  I love it.  And no, I’m not going to school anymore.  I realized what I was doing wasn't something I was passionate about and I was wasting time and money for us, and it wasn't the right time to start all over with something new.  So I’m now Austin’s sugar mama and we’re trying to get him through school right now.  BTW he is now going to Weber and he’s loving it.

Our new ward has been great so far.  We are definitely the youngest by far, but we've gotten used to that.  Austin got a calling a couple weeks ago as the ward mission leader, and I was called last week to be in the Nursery, and will once again not be able to get to know anybody in the ward besides the chillins.  But they are so cute that it doesn't matter. 

The last of the changes is our car.  Austin’s parents were nice enough to let us use their “kid car” since we've been married and it’s been so nice to always have 2 cars.  Dalton, Austin’s brother came home from his mission in September and he’s now using it, so we bought a little Civic for Austin.  (By the way...I had never met Dalton until now, which was a little weird but it's been fun to get to know him and basically get a new family member) We got a good deal on the car and it’s in awesome condition…….then after we bought it we took it in for safety & emissions.  It failed.  Big time.  After that $900 repair, we just recently had to replace the battery, and we’ll have to replace the tires before winter.  Cars are the worst.   

Besides that, we’re doing great and really loving life in general. Hopefully you'll hear from me before another 6 months passes :)