Monday, January 25, 2010

happy birthday dad & julez

i heard one time that birthdays come in pairs and i'm not sure if it's true everywhere, but we're starting to see it come true in our family! dad's birthday was saturday and julez turned 3 on sunday. i went to lunch with my parents on saturday, good times. and then we celebrated both birthdays on saturday night. so fun! i love having the family all together (we missed our utah family though!) for celebrations like that!

we had cherry pie for dad's "cake" and chocolate or white cupcakes for julez's cake. julez blew out the candles on both "cakes" multiple times. it was adorable.

love you both!

no pictures from me this time ... 8 days til photography class starts, then you'll all be sick of pictures from me.

a little bit country

i spent thanksgiving this year in montana with my grandparents, parents, and jay & tina's family. we flew into salt lake and stayed for a couple days at jay & tina's, then we loaded ourselves into a suburban-ish car and headed to montana. it was the relaxing trip i needed after a running-all-the-time vacation in florida just a week before that.

{nathan & addie wanted to share their halloween costumes with us}

for something to do at my grandparent's house, all the boys went out to the barn to build a birdhouse for nathan. while the men were discussing the best way to make the birdhouse, nathan wanted to do a photo shoot with me (really, he wanted to!).

{i'm not sure where the look came from, but it's the same face i saw when addie hit nathan and then told him to "take it like a man"}


{addie & nathan pretending to be some type of animal ... i was having a hard time getting a serious picture!}

after the photo shoot, some sword fighting, and a lot of "discovering" in the barn, the boys got down to business and created the birdhouse!

{the finished product (minus paint) and all 4 generations}


Thursday, January 21, 2010

florida finale

is anyone else tired of hearing about my trip to florida? well i am tired of posting stuff from 2 months ago, so this is it. the rest of the trip in a post. we went to animal kingdom, where we saw a ton of animals. seriously. and all of my pictures were great except for this one, which i wish was great. i snapped a quick picture as we were driving away. [insert note about learning how to use my camera here]

{i loved seeing these big cats (cheetah?) and they looked scary!}

beyond the safari where we saw very cool animals, animal kingdom was mostly lame. definitely not a place to spend a whole day. the one other thing worth seeing at animal kingdom is "lion king the musical". good show (except we couldn't take our popcorn in with us so we had to put it in terri's mom bag).



we hit hollywood studios for two partial days. there is a lot to see there. "american idol" show, the stunt show, chip and dale (terri knew the difference between the two, i did not), high school musical show in the street, "backstage" tour, osborn family christmas lights, tower of terror, rock n rollercoaster, and the most amazing show of all, fantasmic (seriously, it's awesome) ... a lot to see.

{water tower on the backstage tour}

{mia and terri in the "streets" of hollywood studios ... now that's a lot of lights}

{mia and terri in line at the rock n roller coaster}

other florida favorites include cirque du soleil (love it!), downtown disney (home of the largest freakin disney store ever, where it is especially hard to find an exit door), the kennedy space center (well, the parking lot at least, as we arrived too late to go in), the cruise ship docking area at cape canaveral (i've never seen a cruise ship up close and i was seriously amazed), and the very salty ocean water and pre-hurricane waves at a beach in cocoa.

good trip people, a good trip.

the happiest place on earth ...

when we first walked into magic kingdom, we were greeted by a parade full of music, colors, and fun! have i mentioned that i love parades? well i do.



then we took a million photos in front of the castle.


{mia and terri - you may recognize these as their super excited faces}


then we checked out this ride. i don't know what it was called, but it was super lame. luckily, the line was fairly short. in my head, the ride was going to be super fast. i'm pretty sure i could have run faster than those cars, and i do not run fast. and, on top of all that, i got in trouble for not holding onto the steering wheel. i really didn't think i needed to though, since the car ran on a metal rail and the top speed was a crawl.


{terri, josette, and billy at the end of their ride ... approximately 45 minutes after they sat down. ha ha}

it was a good day. i'm pretty sure you can't get better than 2 parades, it's a small world ride, disney princesses, tom sawyer island (more specifically, the barrel bridge where i almost lost a flip flop!), a chance to wear our $14 ponchos (if only for a minute), and big thunder mountain railroad.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

my very favorite part of disney ...

i am in love with epcot. my favorite part has always been the world showcase (with france and canada among my favorite stops), but this time we spent more time at future world than i have before ... and i loved that too!

we took the obligatory "pictures in front of the big epcot ball" ...

{billy and josie}

{well, i got 5 of us in the picture this time ... it's just not meant to be to have a picture with all 6 of us!}

we took pictures in china ...

{billy, josette, and terri ... all happy to have their photo taken once again (especially josette!)}

{mia and her hand-less imperial guard boyfriend}
we had lunch in mexico, listened to music in japan and morocco, ate eclairs, cream puffs, and ham/cheese croissants in france, slept through a movie in america (the air conditioned theater was the draw for me!)
overall it was a world-o-fun!

the faces of josette

while at seaworld, we went to the "believe" show (the shamu show), and were a little disappointed. they had made some changes to the tanks and the whales wouldn't go in and out like they were supposed to. so, rather than extend the show, they just cut it short and told us to come back later if we wanted to see the full show.

fortunately for me, i have the fancy "take-fifteen-pictures-really-fast" feature on my camera. so, josette and i experimented and laughed through the whole show. hey, we needed something to keep us busy! and while it might not be as hilarious for the rest of you, it's still funny to me. i. am. still. laughing.

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

a day of oceanic goodness

florida 2009!! this year for our BJAMN trip, we decided on orlando, fl. we stayed in a condo about 10 minutes from disneyworld and ran around like crazy people for a whole week! i was worn out! attendees this year were billy, josette, mia, joe, terri, and me ... we missed ya aaron!

so monday we went to sea world. i love sea world. i just love the shows, the animal "tricks", everything.

we saw the dolphin show ...



the sea lion and otter show ...

{believe it or not, this is one of the only "group" shots they'd pose for}

fed dolphins, sting rays, and sea lions ...
{terri and mia about to feed the dolphins}
{billy and joe feeding the sea lions, even though the birds stole most of the food}
attended a less-than-stellar version of "believe" (more to come later) ...
and had an overall good time ...
{the uncaged "lizard" we found ... we're quite the detectives}
{don't they look like they're having fun?}

it's about time ...

yes, i've been slacking in the photo department. i had about 700 pictures in my camera and every time i tried to upload them, i couldn't get my computer to recognize any of them! so, i finally went and had them put on a disc so i can share. expect lots of catching up from the month of november in the next few days!

more exciting than that (for me, anyway), i registered for a photography class next month. it's just a 4-week beginning class, but hopefully i'll learn a little more about my camera and taking better pictures. i've had a dream camera for a year now and feel like it's time to learn how to use it properly!

on another note, the olympics start in 23 days ... can't wait! someday i'll get to actually go to the Olympics, but until then i'll settle for watching it on TV!


Friday, January 8, 2010

happy birthday marcia & harper!

i have a new niece! harper lee, born this morning at 8:15. she is 8 lbs, 9 oz and is 20.5" long. i'm biased, but i think she's a cutie ...

i'm only sad that i'll be travelling for the next 2 weeks and won't get to see her!

on another note ... happy birthday to marcia! i've known marcia for about 9 years (that sounds like such a long time!). i think one of my favorite stories about marcia is from about 5 years ago. rob, marcia, aaron, stephanie, and i all piled into rob's volkswagon gti for an overnight trip to nauvoo. arriving without incident, we attended the city of joseph pageant, hung out at the hotel, and had a great time. on the ride home, however, things took a turn.

rob was driving and i was in the passenger seat (i get sick in the car if i can't see out the window, at least that's what i tell everyone ... ha ha). marcia, steph, and aaron were squished in the back seat. we all started singing songs on the way home, and by singing i mean at the top of our lungs. rob was annoyed, so we started singing louder. well, rob missed a turn he was supposed to take, and blamed us loud singers for it! after he yelled at us no one said anything for about 20 minutes! of course now all we can do is laugh about it!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

wake up call ...

this morning i received an email at 6:42 am from my boss, "are you irritated that i haven't finished your performance evaluation yet?"

i wanted to say "i'm mostly irritated that your email at 6:42 am woke me up", but i didn't.

i told him i didn't care about the performance evaluation unless it was holding back my big fat raise and that i assumed he'd tell me if i was doing something wrong.

he followed up with "nothing wrong, in fact, you are doing very well, which i don't say enough ..." and other nice things.

i can't complain about a wake up call like that.

a little celebration ...

once upon a time (december 31, 2009), 5 people sat together for a countdown to the new year ...

Monday, January 4, 2010

It's a New Year ...


{our new years eve aftermath}

maybe it's because
  • it's a new year, a new beginning
  • business is back to normal after weeks of people being out-of-office
  • i won free lunch and chair massages for my office tomorrow
  • edward is the january picture in my new moon calendar
  • i put on a sweater this morning that's a size smaller than i usually wear and it's too big
  • vancouver olympics start in 39 days
  • i was reminded this morning of strobe ball ... super fun
  • i'll have a new niece on friday

but whatever it is, i'm happy today!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

if you traveled as much as I do ...

You would find that a table for one can be quite enjoyable.

You would learn that the Chevy HHR is a little better than the PT Cruiser, but not by much. (ps ... i couldn't remember the name of the PT cruiser so I googled ugly cars and it showed up ... just fyi).

You would find that a brand new hotel is everything it's cracked up to be.

You would get to visit friends you haven't seen in a very long time.

You would know that there's a walkway to the terminal from the 4th floor of the parking garage at O'hare.

You would recognize the gate agents in Memphis, Denver, and Manchester.

You would obtain Premier status at United Airlines, finally. And all that goes with that (separate security lines, first seating on the plane, economy plus seats, free baggage).

It was worth the wait!

no excuses ... just a post

Yes, I'm very very behind in blogging. Since I don't have a good excuese, I won't make up a bad one. But, I do want to be better about blogging ... doesn't that sound like a good new year's resolution? Which means I really have another month before I need to be good. However, it takes some practice. so, a month of practice, and then i'll be better. i promise.

I've had a bunch of pictures on my desktop from my last trip to Memphis that I wanted to blog about. Now that it's been a few months, I don't have a ton to say about it. But, I'll post the pictures anyway.

After my first trip to Memphis, i decided that before I left for the last time I would go tour Graceland. I don't know really why I wanted to, as I've never been a huge fan of Elvis, never really even knew anything about him or his life. I just thought it'd be cool, even though I had to tour alone.

And cool it was. I enjoyed every moment of the tour ... and was thrilled to see that it was an audio tour, so everyone was walking around with earphones by themselves!
There were so many things to see in there, not to mention all the awards (holy crap, there were a lot!) and clothes!

My favorites were:
{graceland's front room ... this white couch is 14 feet long!}
{the pool room ... that is fabric draped all over the ceiling and walls!}
{this is the award room now, but originally it was his personal racquetball court ... crazy!}
I didn't take any pictures of his personal planes, but that was another favorite!!
Anyway, while I'm sure that this wouldn't necessarily be on everyone's to-do list, I recommend it!






Wednesday, September 2, 2009

rad bike for josie

Madsen Cycles Cargo Bikes

josette wants one of these bikes and now i am trying to get one too! :) Click on the pic above to check it out!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Travel Blog ... Memphis, TN

I feel like I've spent a great majority of my summer in Memphis. And we're not even opening a center in Memphis! We are, however, opening centers in Holly Springs, MS and Forrest City, AR, which are each about an hour away from Memphis. So, I've been staying at a hotel in Memphis, and driving every morning to whichever center I'm working on that day.

I made appointments with AT&T and with some furniture installers on Monday morning and therefore needed to fly in on Sunday. I really am not a fan of flying on Sunday, for multiple reasons, but I had to do it this time. My flight was at 9:00pm (I wanted to waste as little of my Sunday as possible), which would have put me in Memphis around 10:30. Except my flight was late ... and my suitcase decided that it didn't want to fly on Sunday and stayed in Chicago for an extra night.

So at 11:45pm on Sunday evening, I pick up my rental car and head to the hotel, with no suitcase. The front desk clerk looks in her drawer of toiletries and comes up with a toothbrush (no toothpaste) and a comb. That's it. I figured that I needed at least toothpaste and deoderant for the next day (and would still be sporting the "no make-up, wet hair pulled up" look), so I asked if there was a wal-mart or walgreens nearby. Nope, nothing that's open 24 hours, and it is, after all, almost 1am by now. My best bet will be the convenience store down the road. And by convenience store, she means the gas station that smells like sewage and sells toothpaste for $4 for a tiny tube. So, toothpaste and deodorant in hand, I head back to the hotel.

It is then that I realize I didn't buy anything for my contacts. I'm faced with the "would you rather" question ... sleep in your contacts all night or soak your contacts in water overnight. Seems that neither is a good choice, but at 2am I decided that the water would be better and went to sleep.

I did set my alarm so that I'd wake up at 6:00, be ready to leave by 7:00, and arrive at the center by 8:00am. At 7:45 I woke up, bolted out of bed, and jumped in the shower. I was late, I couldn't get ready, had to put on old clothes, and was worried about what I was going to find when I tried to put my contacts in. The contacts had turned from a shade of blue to an ugly green in the water, and my eyes did everything they could to reject them. But, I got them in and walked around with itchy, red, watery, sensitive eyes all day. It was pretty.

First thing I found at the center when I arrived ...


I'll just tell you ... cockroaches. And all the locals know how to kill them. We saw about 3 of them throughout the day.

By the end of the day my suitcase had been delivered to my hotel, my eyes had been relieved by my glasses, and I had another center open and crossed off the list. yay!

On Tuesday I hit the road again, headed towards Forrest City, AR. There's not a lot in that city, let me tell ya. Our IT guy found 3 pairs of underwear in the ceiling. I have NO idea how they got there ... but he pulled one out to prove it to me ... so I took a picture.

And, by the end of Tuesday, I had another center finished. Woo hoo! That's 5 centers down, 3 to go!

Before I left Memphis, I had to check out Graceland ... by myself, because Gina and Robbie wouldn't join me. It was excellent! I'll post about that next ...

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Cirque du So-lame? I think not!


This past weekend we went to see Cavalia, a horse themed show under the big top that was created by one of the co-founders of Cirque du Soleil.

I was originally introduced to Cirque du Soleil about 7 years ago. My original thought when my hair stylist told me was Cirque du what? And what did she tell me? That while it seemed expensive, it is worth every dollar you spend on the tickets. Doubtful, right? But while Stephanie and I were in Orlando shortly after that, we were looking for something to do and bought $100 tickets to Cirque's "La Nouba". And now I agree. It IS worth every dollar we spent. In fact, we were wishing we had spent more to get the closer tickets.

Fast forward a few years, to Stephanie's 21st birthday weekend in Vegas. I decided that $80 was too much to spend on a Cirque ticket when no one else would go with me, so I stayed at the hotel and instead wasted $80 at the Blackjack tables. Bad idea.

A couple years ago when we were in Vegas again, I helped convince a doubting crowd that we should go see a Cirque show. With everyone on board, we went to buy tickets. Except all of the shows were sold out. I guess that's what we get for waiting too long. But, the concierge told us that "Le Reve" was just as good or better, so an even more doubtful crew handed their money over for the tickets. According to the concierge, Le Reve was originally a Cirque show, purchased by Steve Wynn so it could run exclusively at his hotel. A Cirque show it was ... from the 1st and 2nd row of the round "theatre", we watched amazing acrobats, aerialists and dancers in the water-based show. It was amazing.

I shouldn't have doubted that Cavalia would be just as good, but for some reason spending that much money for a couple hours of entertainment leaves me thinking it won't be worth it. But I was proven wrong, once again. I recommend it to everyone, horse lover or not. It will leave you wishing you had a horse of your own and wanting to learn how to do tricks galore.

Lesson learned, I think. I will no longer pass up the opportunity to see a Cirque show (or one created by the cofounder). Starting this fall. I'll be going again to see "La Nouba", just because I can.

Monday, July 20, 2009

You May Not Know ...

I feel like I should be blogging more often ... but then I feel like my life's too boring to blog about. And today I decided I don't care. So what if people think I'm boring? So here ... 10 things you may or may not know about me:

1. I'm a nerd and I'm OK with it. I like crossword puzzles, gadgets, useless knowledge, puzzles, numbers ... you name the nerdy thing, i probably like it.

2. I'm a TV junkie if I allow myself to be. Among my favorites: Law & Order, Ace of Cakes, Wizards of Waverly Place, Chelsea Lately, Friends (I'll always watch a rerun!)

3. I judge restaurants as much for their bathrooms as for their food. I heard one time that bathrooms will always tell if a company cares about their customers. The restaurant i go to regularly with the best bathrooms? probably Cheesecake Factory

4. I really enjoy making new things ... particularly crafts and recipes. And I take great pride in something when it turns out well.

5. My favorite summer food is BLT sandwiches with white bread and tomatoes fresh from the garden.

6. I am totally a night person. It's not that I'm grumpy in the morning or anything, just that I prefer night.

7. I try to not let people know how easily I become annoyed. I know it's not a becoming trait, but if I can't get rid of it, it's better if I hide it, right?

8. Sometimes I think I should stop drinking soda. And then I decide that I need a really good reason to stop. So far I haven't found one, so Diet Coke continues to be my drink of choice.

9. I like reading the book before I see the movie. Maybe it's because i don't like surprises, but I think it's just because I like to compare the two afterward.

10. I wish I could write well. And I hope that "practice makes perfect" applies to writing. I have so many ideas that I want to make into books ...

Monday, June 22, 2009

Travel Blog ... Claremont, NH

This week I've got a couple trips planned ... I'm only in Claremont overnight, but I LOVE this hotel and wanted to share! It's brand new. The only hotel in town. The city has taken a deep interest in renovating a bunch of these old mills in the heart of downtown. The Common Man Inn just opened in one of them.

The hotel is right on the river and the rooms overlook the falls:



The rooms all have wood floors, antique(ish) furniture, flat screen TV ... it's awesome!

I plan to stay here anytime I return. I like it. Now if I can only figure out how to get to this hot tub!

GPS, lizard, and OOOOOKLAHOMA!

(thanks to taber for the catchy title ... i told you i'd use it!)

So Kim told me about this place called Discoveryland in Tulsa ... it's kind of a dinner and theater (OKLAHOMA!) kind of thing. We, however, opted out of the dinner and did our own thing, italian style. The night went something like this:


Kim, Taber, and I get in the car and head to Carrabba's for dinner. Mostly uneventful except for 2 things. The first was this conversation between Kim and the waitress:


Kim: I'll have the lasagna.
Waitress: soup or salad?
K: Salad
W: What kind of dressing ... house or caesar
K: Caesar salad
W: house salad with caesar dressing?
K: Caesar salad
W: house salad with caesar dressing?
K: Caesar salad
W: I'm confused


And the second was this conversation between me and the waitress (we should have known by now what we were dealing with):


Natalie: this diet coke doesn't really taste like diet coke, could you bring me another one?
Waitress: (picking up the drink smelling it) oh, that's definitely diet coke
N: well could I have another anyway?


I thought she was going to take a sip of the drink ... so i was happy when she only smelled it, but still. Can you really smell the difference between coke and diet coke? I think not.


After dinner, we were headed straight to Discoveryland for the play. We type it into the GPS and hit the road. Before we know it, we are "arriving at destination" according to the GPS. Except that we weren't actually arriving at our destination. Far from it, actually.


We call the real Discoveryland, they give us general directions, and we type a general address into the GPS. This time, as we're approximately 2 miles away, there's a "road closed" sign. Except Taber points out that it's closed to thru traffic. So we go down that road thinking that they're ok with local traffic using the road. A couple miles down there's a sign that says "bridge out ahead". What do you think ... only for thru traffic? Forge ahead. We get to the bridge, which actually is there, only it's rough ... dirt, etc everywhere. But there are tracks around the sign, and we can see the opposite side of the bridge, so we decide to go around the sign. On the other side of the bridge, there are also signs. Only there isn't room to go around them this time. We made Taber get out of the car, move the sign and sandbags, and help us through. All while laughing hysterically. I almost peed my pants we were laughing so hard!


We finally found the real Discoveryland! A little late, but it was OK. We bought our tickets and took our little hike down to the amphitheater. A quick trip to the bathrooms before we took our seats. I looked up, and saw this:


yes, a lizard, or some kind of nasty reptile! Luckily, it was dead. At least I think so.


Intermission brought snow cones. During the 2nd half, Kim and I were sitting there eating our snow cones. I was holding a spoonful of ice when I leaned over to say something to Kim. I believe I had gotten out "eating this is like chipping ice off the iceberg that sank the Ti ..." when a gun shot went off in the play. It scared me so much that I jumped enough to send all of the ice on my spoon flying! I think Kim and I laughed through most of that scene!

Here's a couple quick pictures of the show. The lights are too bright for the photo, but at least you can see the scene!





The return trip took significantly less time ... and all in all, it was a fantastic evening ... complete with good fun and great friends!