We're Back... Alaska Girls Trip.1

We both had tons of fun!!

greg enjoyed:  eating expensive steak . amazing Indian curry . Yankees game . food poisioning ;) . training
kayla enjoyed: spending time with family and friends . driving on Ninnis street ;) . amazing seafood . shopping . whale watching . flying over glaciers . girl time . reading hunger games .... I could go on forever.

Greg and I finally came home this weekend and it felt greg (oops I meant to say great...) to not be living out of a suitcase anymore. I felt like we were gone forever.

So my whole plan for both of us to take cameras didn't work out as planned.... Greg forgot his camera so he bought a camera while he was there and of course it's a little disposal film one and since I'm almost to unmotivated at the moment to blog about Alaska, I have my doubts that I will go develop those pictures anytime soon. So for the time being you will just have to see my pictures.

 Since we weren't originally planning on moving, my madre purchased my tickets to Alaska out of Phoenix so I flew into Phoenix first and stayed with my friend Mal Pal...we had lots of fun catching up on girl time, eating at restaurants I missed, playing with Alex, seeing old friends,  shopping...ah how I love shopping with girls more than Greg ( I love you sweetie...but a girl just needs another girls opinion) and Mallory never fails to tell me the truth so she is a great shopping partner.

After Phoenix I flew to Seattle and met up with my family. We had one full day in Seattle so we headed to our old stomping grounds, Bellingham, to eat at one of our favorite restaurants ....Taco Lobo

Every Wednesday before piano practice we would eat here. It was a fun family tradition I miss.

After Bellingham we drove back to Seattle and of course went to Pike Place market as it was closing :( , shopped, movie, bed, flying to Juneau in the morning.

Goodbye...

Greg and I are both traveling and are going to be on opposite sides of the continent. He is going to New York for training and I am going to Alaska with my mom, sister and aunts for a girls vacation with a little stop in Arizona and Seattle on the way..I'm really excited!! So Greg has one camera and I have the other and once we get back we will share with you our adventures.

I Did it....

I cut my hair and I love it....most of the time :) Thanks everyone for your suggestions!!

 Greg and I were able to hang out with a lot of good friends over the weekend. On Saturday we stopped for lunch and got a Jamba Juice, where we entertained ourselves with our camera... we know we are dorks, but we had fun so that's all that matters :).

 Hope you had a great weekend as well!!

Craving New Clothes

I feel like I haven't gone shopping for clothes in forever and am craving some new clothes. I definitely wouldn't buy these only cause they are insanely expensive but they are the cutest!! If I was a billionaire I would buy them all!!. Check out the Emersonmade site. If you can't buy them at least they give you cute ideas.

No Work For Greg

Yesterday Greg had the day off and it was glorious. We....

• slept in...ahh one of my favorite things to do with my hubby
• went swimming and did laps. which I decided is my favorite way of working out. I felt so full of energy afterwards and hyper.. I think I need to buy membership so I can go everyday.
•  job interview
•  Zupas.. I missed that place, it is so delicious. If you haven't already you need to try and mix the wild cauliflower and mushroom bisque soup together its the bestest.

• Gilgal garden


• hiked Ensign Peak which had an amazing view
• minature golfing

• sno shack
• relaxed and watched a movie

Swimming With Sisters

Friday I took two of my little sisters swimming. We had lots of fun!! I'm excited to be closer to them so I can see them grow up. If only my entire family could live in the same state... I would even take the same side of the United States. I decided that Greg is spoiled in the family department cause not only does his dad, mom and ALL his sibilings live in Utah, practically all his cousins, aunts and uncles live in Utah too. Ughh not fair!!!

Happy Fourth!

Cool picture huh?...I can't take credit for it, sadly I didn't take any pictures :( .
Yesterday we started out by celebrating Chady's birthdaywith a picnic in the park.  Afterwards we were able to go to the Stadium of Fire and see Carrie Underwood...she was amazing. It was such a touching night. I am so grateful for the opportunity we have to live in America. The last song they played was God Bless America and I kind of got teary eyed. It was so touching and I felt such an immense gratitude for all the people who have put their lives on the line for our freedom.
Hope you had great day celebrating too!!

Fat Free Chicken Dip :)

Tuesday my cute pregnant sister in- law...aka Valerie had a baby shower. We had lots of fun and she got some super cute stuff. Baby Lusvardi  is due August 8, he is coming so soon...yay!! Valerie is going to be such a good mommy.

For the shower we  decided to make a recipe that I had previously had at a family party. It is delicious, so I thought I would pass the recipe along for those of you who want to try it out for yourselves. I wouldn't necessarily recommend cooking it for a home meal cause it is probably not the healthiest, but it is great for parties, when you don't care what you are eating as much :)

6 Chicken Breasts

1 Cup Ranch

1 Stick of Cream Cheese ( I believe its 8oz.)

Frank's Hot Wing Sauce to your liking (We found it at Smiths, but I'm sure anywhere has it)

Boil the chicken until it shreds easily. Shred the chicken and mix all ingredients in pan over the oven. We tripled the recipe and ended up putting in the entire bottle of Hot Wing Sauce in, to give you an idea what we thought was good. Once all the ingredients are mixed and nice and hot we put it into a crock pot to keep it warm throughout the shower. Serve with bread or pita chips. Its delicious!!

Greg's First Day

Greg's first day at Goldman Sachs was monday!!

It is nice to gradually be getting back into a schedule and making money again. We are loving being back in Utah...the mountains, the weather, family and friends we missed....

 I'm still completely jobless. I actually have quite a few things that could occupy my time and its hard for me to just stay at home and look for a job, one of my pet peeves I decided.  I should just be a stay at home wife...haha jk I think I would go crazy after a while.

100th Post

When we first got married I remember by good friend Jolee telling me I should start a blog now cause that is what married people do :). It is so true, holy cow. Its like a whole different world you don't find out about until you get married. I love the blog world!!! There are so many women out there to learn from and be inspired by and the blog world makes that all possible. And of course its a great way to stay in touch with friends and family. Over the past two years I have found a few blogs that I never miss a post. They inspire me to be a great mom one day, to be able to see my trials as blessings, cute outfit ideas :), fun ideas to do with my future children, photographers that inspire me to reach my goals.....the list goes on and on. Here are the blogs I look at the most...

Rockstar Diaries

Nie Nie Dialogues

Ashley Ann Photography

Which blogs are your favorite?

So as you can tell I have gotten a little obsessed with blogging. I hope to soon share a photography blog I have been working on so watch out for that.

Thanks everyone for all the comments, love and inspiration!!

Should I...

cut my hair like these beautiful girls? I am getting so sick of my hair, but don't want to cut it short. So I think I might cut my bangs. These girls look super cute with bangs, but I have a fear that I might look ridiculous.

What do you think?

Draper Temple

Yesterday we had the chance to go clean the temple after hours. It was such a neat experience.We were there until twelve and the housekeeper said he stays there until five thirty and I sat there thinking what does he do. The temple was already immaculate. There were things though that were cleaned that you never even thought about, such as the scriptures ( if your scriptures ever get dirty, clean them with carpet cleaner it works like a charm on the leather).  For most of the time I ended up cleaning a section by myself and I felt like I was in the temple all by myself. It was so nice to have a moment with no distractions and complete silence being in the house of the lord.  

Thunder Storm

Sunday was such a great day because...

I got to go to relief society and it was wonderful.It has been forever since I was able to go and it was better then I remember.

Greg winked at me while he was up on the stand... I loved it. It made me all giddy.

And we had the most amazing thunder storm! It is so hard to get pictures of lightning I decided, takes a lot of patience, but I succeeded at getting  a couple...

The Graduate

She did it!!

Wednesday we had fun going to Kels graduation... it was the last one for Gregs family. Once we move out :) they will be empty nesters....crazy. I can't believe how fast time flys.

 I always get goosebumps and feel all inspired when I go to graduations and other similar things. It was so fun to remember my high school graduation and how I felt.... I can't believe it has been five years.

Congratulations Kelsey we ruv rwo!

Memorial Day

The Sunday before memorial day we did something I have never done before... we actually celebrated memorial day. We went and visited Greg's grandparents graves. It was a fun ( weird to say...but it was). We sat around and talked about their lives and the good memories everyone has of them. Greg always tells me good things about his Grandpa Jay, I wish I could have met him. He passed away right after Greg graduated from High School.

The boys played a little catch....

It was so cool to see all the flowers on the graves, it was a touching and fun experience.

On Monday we had a little redneck experience cooking foil dinners in the in-laws backyard. We figured the canyon would be packed with people so we resorted to the backyard and had tons of fun.

The handsome men who helped make our delicious dinner....

Hope you had a good Memorial weekend as well!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Gosh isn't my sister Gorgeous!!!

My sister Lauren turns 16 today and I can't believe it. I feel like I have missed out on so much of her growing up. I wish we could live closer, so we could have more girls nights and laugh so hard we pee our pants.

I'm so proud you bub.... the smart, artistic, fun loving young woman you have become.I wish I could see you everyday.

Happy Birthday bub I love you tons!!

Goodbye Arizona :(

Gosh everything happened so fast. We arrived in Utah on Saturday for good. Although it feels like we are just up here for a holiday weekend. I don't think it has set in yet that we aren't going back :(.  We miss you Arizona!
Sorry if we didn't make it to say goodbye, but we will miss everyone. You are all more than welcome to come up and stay with us once we don't live with the in-laws to go skiing, go to conference, come hang with us while its over 100 degrees there, we would love to see you!

Thanks Escobar's and Wither's for your hospitality and for all the strong men that helped us move.We have been so blessed to make such great friends that make it so hard to leave.

We Love Alexandra Noel Withers!!

Greg is so cute before she comes over he always says, "I get to hold her first. No battle!"

We want one!! We want to eat her up in little bites.

Tim and Mal Pal let us babysit her Sunday and we had lots of fun. She makes the cutest faces I can't believe how fast she is growing up. It makes me sad to think we are moving and are going to miss so much.

One Box Down A Million More To Go

Its official we are moving next weekend . Yesterday we packed our first box.

Sad...

to be leaving such great people behind that we are going to miss tons!! ---- no more easy access to a swimming pool ---- we don't get to sleep in our comfortable bed for a few months ---- i never got to see my garden grow completely ---- no more qdoba ---- we didn't get to experience all of Arizona ---- no more flying benefits

Excited...

Greg's new job ---- old Friends ---- photography job ----spring weather again ---- close Family ---- snow ---- don't have to suffer in Arizona heat ---- buying a house ---- in n out so I don't have to miss my animal style cheeseburgers ---- mountains

Cameron and Marissa Got Hitched

Cam and Rissa got married on Wednesday in the Manti Temple. It was a very windy and rainy day, as you can tell from the picture above, but they had smiles on their face the entire time. They are such a cute couple... I'm so excited to have another sister in law.
The Manti Temple was gorgeous!!
 

 

Guess Who We Saw...

Last night Greg and I flew to Utah for his brothers wedding. Flying benefits are great but sometimes not so great. Our flight, that appeared wide open, was overbooked. So we had to try another flight or start driving. Luckily Greg got us a flight on Southwest and Stephanie Nielson was on our flight!!!

He is actually the one that pointed her out... he said " don't you read that girls blog" haha. I got to say hi to her she is so sweet and she and her husband are the cutest. I kind of felt stalkerish for knowing all about her life.

If you don't already read her blog I recommend you take a look at it here. She is an amazing example of the kind of person I want to be.

Salt Lake City Here We Come

Greg accepted the job with Goldman Sachs so... we are moving to Utah the beginning of June!! I'm super excited, but sad at the same time. We have grown so much closer to my dads side of the family  and we have made some life long friends we really are going to miss.

We are excited though that we don't have to suffer through the 120 degree summer.

We plan  on Greg starting with Gold some time towards the beginning of June, buying a house, I'm going to work towards getting my SLPA license and taking a few photography classes.

We are excited for our new adventure.

Two Years That's It?

{our first date}

Yesterday was our two year anniversary!! Although it feels like we have been together forever. I feel like such a lucky girl to have him as my husband.

Apple Chips

We went to Costco on Saturday and I discovered one of my new favorite things...Bare Fruit Granny Smith Apple Chips. They are amazing... and not only that, but they are healthy! I was snacking on them all day. They were a little pricey so I looked up a recipe and I'm determined to make them. So I'll keep you posted. If any one has a good recipe please let me know otherwise here is the recipe I'm going to try out....

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp cinnamon

4 apples (Granny Smith, Fuji, Winesap --choose your favorite), cored

 

Preheat oven to 250. Slice apples as thinly and evenly as possible, using a mandolin or sharp knife. In a large bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar. Add the apples to the bowl and toss until all the slices have some sugar and cinnamon on them. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and cover with apples, in a single layer. Bake about two hours, until browned and just crisp. Let cool (they will be crispier after cooling.)

Store in a covered container or Ziploc-style bags up to one week.

Two Weeks Notice

Yesterday Greg put in his two weeks notice at US Airways. I'm definitely going to miss the flying benefits, but I'm more exicted for our new adventure.

In two weeks or so he will either start working at Vensure...with me or we will be moving to Salt Lake for him to work with Goldman Sachs.

Looking Forward To...

Our two year anniversay ...

Cameron & Marissa's wedding ...

A week in Alaska with my mom, sister and aunts....

Becoming an uncle & auntie....