Home Sweet Home

We are homeowners!!

I finally have pictures of our house with our stuff instead of the previous owners'. No nursery pics yet - maybe once it's finished :)

Stats: 3br, 2 full & 2 half baths, living/dining room open area, eat-in kitchen, bonus room w/ fireplace & patio, tray ceiling and walk-in in master, deck and a garage.

Our Voyage Eastward

As I shed a small tear for Utah, we headed off at 4:52am on our four day journey east to my family's home in Maryland to stay until our house in Pennsylvania went to closing. Let the excitement begin!

Red Rock Relay

I did something I never thought I'd do this summer. I signed up to run a race - a RELAY race. I had heard great things about some of the similar Ragnar races so when some of my friends from PMI needed some extra teammates I thought "what the heck, why not take the challenge and have some great fun with friends before I leave Utah" and I did it!

With this relay you have a team of 12 people, each of which runs 3 legs of a 36 leg 180 mile race during a 24 hour period. Each leg is anywhere between 3 and 8 miles long, with the entire course spanning 180 miles and a descent of 8,000 ft.

Each team of 12 is split up into 2 van groups - the Snow team and the Sun team. Each van takes turns supporting their runner (stopping along the course to give encouragement and hydration) and then at the end of the leg the van drops off the next runner, where he waits for the baton to be handed to him to start his leg.

The whole team finishes together!

Our team minus 1 after we got our medals
The Snow team after we finished our legs

Hiking Timp!

I had the great opportunity to challenge myself and hike Mount Timpanogos (2nd highest in the Wasatch Mountain Range -11,749 feet) with my good friend Emily this summer. She has been before and knew the ropes - for example the fact that you start hiking at 4AM with headlamps so you get to the top before the sun gets too strong. Our husbands weren't too excited about waking up so early, so we braved the hike ourselves :) The whole thing took us around 8-9 hours top to bottom, I think. By the end I may have been hallucinating so I might not have my facts straight. It was definitely a great experience and I would recommend the hike to anyone who has the guts to do it!


My computer lost most of my pictures but this was a great shot we got on the way up (around 5:30 am)

Here's what the view is like at the top! Click to enlarge. (courtesy Wikipedia)

Vegas Vacation

I had a great trip to Vegas with my bro-in-law in celebration of his 18th! Amos missed out since he had to travel, but he was generous enough to get us a nice place to stay super close to the strip!

Caleb's favorite, the MGM Grand

On the strip.

Ooh la la!

Cool shot of the Stratosphere

I LOVE the Luxor (and the Wynn)

Then on the way back we visited the St. George Temple

And I got Caleb hooked on In-n-Out!

Coming up Quickly!

Our Big Move...and my relay.

We know when we're moving! It will be the week of September 12th that we load up the truck and head East. We're just trying to fit in everything before then, so anyone in Utah make sure to let us know if you want to get together before then!

And, I am going to participate in the Red Rock Relay, which is a 180 mile 24-hour relay race made up of teams of 12 people (that each run 3 times through the course of the race). I figured it would be a good chance to get in good shape and do something fun with some friends before packing up and heading out. However, that means I have to train, a LOT. Anyone with any relay-running or training tips please let me know!!

All Amos, All the time! (this week)

Amos was home for this whole week! He got home last Saturday after his company training meeting and an intense paintball match. AND he brought me home cookies and a cell phone holder for my desk. He got major points for that. Now for the collateral damage...

Nope, that's not a 3rd nipple you see- it's a paintball 'battle scar'. He had about 3 others just like this one. Ow!

Caleb is here from England so Amos and him have played tennis pretty much every afternoon. Here's us on Saturday:

It was really hot, and just near the courts were some people who were extremely innovative and fashioned a huge slip-n-slide out of a long sheet of plastic, a hose, a hill, and some dish soap and sprinklers. They were all having a blast, so after my match against Amos I decided to go for a ride down the hill to cool off.
We kept busy the rest of the weekend going to the Park City Outlets, playing Apples to Apples with the Nicolls, and going to baby Jake's baby blessing on Sunday.

My New Craft

Whenever I find the time, I have used a fabric star-making kit to make these little mobiles! It's fun, but time consuming :)

Happy 25th Amos!

Amos was in Florida this year for his birthday, which means that he had a wonderful time celebrating on the sunny beach with warm water, and enjoying an expensive meal at the Cheesecake Factory - all company expense. Not too shabby!

We celebrated when he came home this weekend - however, this michevious Hobby dug in this morning before I got a chance to take a picture. Here's the birthday boy with his partially-eaten cookie cake he requested this year!

Hanging Out at the Park

...Zion's National Park! We got a chance to do one of the things on my Utah Bucket List - go hiking through the Slot Canyons at Zions. Amos and I went down for the weekend and spent Saturday hiking and Sunday relaxing down in St. George. The hike we went on was a very flat hike, up a river (of cold knee-high water) to where the canyon gets really narrow. It is a breathtaking hike, and a great way to spend a warm afternoon.
And on our way home we stopped by the St. George Temple
And even more amazing, we did the whole trip for the cost of park admission, plus gas, plus $2.75 for food. Yep, $2.75. Amos had a gift card for Outback and when we got there we ordered an appetizer, a salad, and a dessert to-go and ended up not being very hungry and making all of it last us the whole few days. (minus our stop to In & Out Burger on the way home - mmm greasy hamburgers) And thanks to the Timms we had nice (and free) accommodations (with HGTV) and pool access - sweet!

Official Announcement...

We are moving to the East Coast! Amos has been assigned to manage the NY, PA, and NJ territories for DealerSocket. We are very excited and have been looking for houses in either NJ or PA and are planning a trip to go out and look in early July. There are so many things in Utah we will miss *ahem*Cafe Rio. (just kidding, but serious at the same time :), but so many things we look forward to about going East. We will be here for a bit longer and could end up heading out in the fall. I am very anxious to do a lot before we leave- like hike the Y, hike Timp, go to the hot pots, go "shooting the tube" again, picnicking in the canyon, going to the drive-in movie, etc. If you are up for doing any of these things with me/us, let me know and let's go!

Parading Around Utah

...checking out a bunch of fancy brand-new million-dollar homes. Now that is definitely my idea of fun! Christie and I have made a tradition out of doing the Utah County Parade of Homes each springtime while our husbands hang out and do whatever husbands do while their wives are gone.

It costs $10 per person, and we get to go see about 20 different homes throughout the valley, and then we go for lunch before returning home. It is really fun to get different decorating ideas, and to see all the latest and greatest features- like lights that imitate outdoor sun lighting, or under-the-sink storage ideas, corner kitchen drawers, etc. It's like HGTV-LIVE!

Does anyone know where I could buy the pictures below? Target maybe? If you've seen them around, let me know!

Memorial Day Weekend

We didn't make any big camping plans, but we DID get to go for a nice springtime stroll at Silver Lake, up at the top of Big Cottonwood canyon. Rather than snowshoeing, we went snowsandaling, as we were both in flip flops and it was still pretty snowy up there. Amos managed to keep his footing during the walk around, but not me! Nope, I definitely fell in some snow.


We also got a chance to wander around Temple Square on Sunday just before it rained.

Definitely an enjoyable, relaxing weekend.

Oh how we love the Weekends!

We weren't going to let my little tennis incident get in the way of our fun - so after pampering my ankle a little, we decided to go out and get a few errands done.

It had been a while since we have been up to Salt Lake City, so we took a trip up to one of my favorite places, the London Market - on 700E and 600S. I have SO much fun going there and looking around. We decided to stop there because we have both been craving Fanta Fruit Twist thanks to the Fanta billboard on highway 15 at about 9000S when you are heading north. In America Fanta isn't as good as in England, and we don't sell the 'fruit twist' version that is so delicious - so that was the nature of our stop. While we were there we also picked up a Lion bar for me, and a few Apple Tango's for Amos. He also picked up some Korma Curry sauce and is going to use it to make us a fantastic dinner tonight! Yay!

Then we went to go see X Men Origins. It was actually perfect timing since EVERYONE was going to see Star Trek and Angels & Demons this weekend since a lot of them have seen X Men already. We both really enjoyed it, and if you go, make sure you watch the 2 extra endings after the credits. I found this funny graph oh Graph Jam which I have to share....


And we also had a great excuse to get some celebratory Krispy Kreme donuts, as Amos found out this week what territory he has been assigned!

Needless to say, we have been doing a lot of research this weekend as to the local areas, neighborhoods, etc! The Adventure awaits!

Hopalong Hobby...

That's me!

Amos and I have started playing tennis on Saturday mornings. We have a court in our complex, and in the morning it is the perfect time to play because it's not too hot - and we get some good sun and good exercise.

We are pretty nicely matched as far as skill level goes - which is nice for me. I'm used to getting beat by Amos at mostly everything! With tennis, he has more power, but I have more experience in placing my shots. Last week we played and drew at 5-5 before we stopped playing. Then this weekend we got to 3-2 and were in the midst of a high-intensity rally when I went flying to the pavement because I rolled my ankle and it gave out on me. I was determined to win that point, too!!

Amos came right over and new exactly what to tell me to do, thanks to all his similar experiences on the soccer pitch. So, I have been hobbling along for the past day and icing it and trying to keep it up. I hope it's all better for next weekend's match!