Not a walk in the park

So on the 16th of May, Chad and I decided it would be fun to go up one of the many canyon's in the Salt Lake area and have a picnic. I got really excited fixing all the food and getting everything prepared. Chad got everything else ready and we headed out around noon or so. We went up the canyon...not sure what it is called....where the this is the place monument and park are. We had driven up once before and we figured it would be a good place to picnic.

So we drove....

And we drove...

And we drove some more until we were really far up the canyon and about an hour into our drive.



We had found lots of pretty sights but still not picnic spot. So we turned around and headed back not sure what to do next. Well we finally found a spot on the way back down. We unloaded all of our picnicing gear from the jeep...we seemed to have a lot of it...and hiked a little ways into the forest where we found a really nice secluded spot right by a little stream. It was perfect. We put the ice chest down and were looking for a good spot to put the blanket when Chad notices there are ants crawling all over him. Note: We had been there maybe about 2 minutes standing there so these ants must have been very fast crawlers. So of course I freaked out.
For those of you that don't know... I HATE ants. With a passion. More than spiders or roaches or anything really. I'm not afraid of them I just hate them. I hate the feeling you get when an ant is crawling on you and the fact that even after you flip it off of you it still feels like there are 10 ants there. I hate that you can't just find one ant, you have to find 100! Oh and it seems like they are impossible to kill. Water: nope, doesn't kill them. Vacuum cleaner: No they just crawl back out. Squishing: ok this seems to work but it isn't a very desirable way to kill any bug. I hate ants. I hate them.
Ok so on with the story. When I realize there are ants on Chad I also notice that hey, there are a ton of ants on me too!! Thank goodness they weren't red ants because I would have dropped everything I was carrying and dashed back to the car so fast Chad wouldn't have known where i went. So i pick up the blanket and walk very quickly back to the car. Poor Chad had to carry the ice chest back to the car again! Turns out there were ants everywhere in the little clearing we picked out. Everywhere! I have never seen so many ants in my life. So we get back in the Jeep and are both very annoyed at this point. We scouted a couple other locations, all of which you had to pay and finally drove back to a park that is 10 minutes from our house. Ironic, I know. We were tired, hot, annoyed and hungry and ended up picinicing 10 minutes from our house after trying for hours to find a good picnic spot.





So moral of the story...don't go on a picnic unless you know exactly where you want to picnic! Chad and I learned our lesson and we also learned that Sugarouse Park is just a nice of a picnic spot as going up a canyon that will take you much much longer and much more gas. We still like picnicing but will probably give a rest for a while.

Emily & Bobby's Wedding

Ok so I have seriously been working on this post forever! I don't know why it has taken me a month to finally finish it. Oh wait yes I do, I have been busy! But who isn't? Guess that's not really an excuse. So A month ago...over a month ago...we went to California for a long weekend because Chad's sister Emily was getting married. We got their on Thursday afternoon. We flew into Oakland and Chad's Dad picked us up from the airport because he was working in the vacinity. Then we ate at...In and Out Burger. Of course. It had to be our first meal in California. Then we went to the Temple grounds and waited around for the rest of his family to get there. Emily was getting her endowments later that night. So we walked throught the visitors center and looked at an art exhibit they had and watched a cheesy but good movie. His family got their shortly and then we went into the temple for the session. The session was wonderful and it was really nice to have his whole family together. It was a really good experience. After the session we went to a wonderful dinner at The Cheescake Factory. It was super late but we were all starving. It took a while to get their because we got the wrong directions so our car was a little peeved by the time we finally got their but the food was so worth it! I wish I would have gotten pictures from dinner but of course I forgot.


Friday we spent the entire say just getting ready for the wedding. I spent the good majority of the day helping with flowers. Chad's mom Michelle is w wonderful florist. (Side note: she also did the flowers for our wedding and they were beautiful too.) I tried to help out where I could. I would arrange the flowers in a vase and then ask Michelle what she thought. She would say ya its good and then end up moving most of the flowers around. But of course it alwasy looked better when she did it! By the end of it though she was only having to slightly adjust my vases so I felt accomplished. I loved doing the flowers but I don't have the natural flair that Michelle or Jill (Chad's sister) have. Anywho, here are some of the final products.

Doing the flowers....Jill and little Hannah (Chad's cousins Johnny and Lorna's 2nd girl).

Aunt Diane and her daughter Amanda (Chad's aunt and cousin on his dad's side.)

Brittney (Chad's cousin on is mom's side) and Jill.

Jill and Michelle getting ready for Emily to come out of the temple.

Yay their married! Can't you just tell how happy they are? I remember that feeling of pure joy.

I posted this one because I thought it showed her dress off nicely. My mom made Emily's wedding dress and the bridesmaid dress too. My mom is a very talented seamstress.

Jessica and her mom Aunt Kara outside the temple. (Jessica and Aunt Kara are Chad's cousin and Aunt on his mom's side.)

Sam, Aunt Diane and Mathew. These are two more of Aunt Diane's kids. We love this family! They are so much fun.

Chad and his mom. I love this picture even though Chad has his sun glasses on! We both are constantly wearing our sun glasses when there is even a remote amount of sun. Oh and his mom looked so pretty in her dress!

Aww...it wouldn't be a wedding post without a kissing picture.

Emily and her bridesmaids. (Her three sisters and Bobby's sister.)

The groomsmen and Emily and Bobby getting jealous. Or Bobby pretending to get jealous becasue we told him to.

Chad aka Elton John. I don't know why but he thinks its so funny when he does this. I guess I do to or I would have left this picture out of this post. I love my silly husband! He constantly makes me laugh with little things like this.

Brittney and me! I like this picture of us.

That night at the reception. Here are the happy couple cutting the cake.

And about to smush the cake in each other's faces.

The end. Sorry this post was so long. I just wanted to get all the details down so I wouldn't forget later.

Another semester...

When you are nearing the end of college it seems to go on forever!!! Spring semester actually went by pretty quickly for me and I did pretty well. I got a 3.3 which amounts to 3 A's, 2 B's and a C (stupid online class- I hate finance). I am really proud of myself for doing so well in all my classes while taking 19 credits, working part time and starting another internship! So today I start another semester, the last big one before I am done with my bachelors. Today I have my wheelthrown pottery class which I am really excited about! It should be really fun. Tomorrow starts the boring classes, mass communication law, my online fittness for life class and Intro to web design. Ok so I guess the only one I am not really looking foreword to is my Law class. We'll see how it goes.

On another note Chad has a new job. His old one was just not working out and he found out Home Depot was looking for someone for the summer which is perfect for us since we are leaving in August. So he applied, interviewed and got the job. He starts this week and is glad to be away from his old job. They treated all of their employees badly and it started to get really boring for him. So at Home Depot he will get more hours and be making more which is nice for us! My husband is always so diligent in taking care of us and I love him for that!

New things all around! I promise to post pictures of our trip to California very soon.

Pilates...aka kicks my butt!

So a few months ago I started going to a pilates class with my friend Lindsey at Gold's Gym (side note to Lindsey: I am very disappointed that you have not come once this week. Slacker). I would go maybe twice a week since I started...but this week I have been three times, four if you count tonight because I am going tonight. I also plan on going Saturday so that brigngs my grand total to 5! Normally I hate when people constantly update you about things such as the gym and what food they fixed for every meal, but I just can't help it. I really really love pilates and I have not gone to the gym 5 out of 7 days a week in a long time!

So reasons I love pilates:

1. It doesn't seem like working out. Normally when I go to the gym an hour of the eliptical and lifting weight seems like 4. When I go to an hour of pilates it seems like 15 minutes.

2. It's challenging but fun so I want to go back. I hate the monotony of the gym because I always do the same things, but with Pilates classes, the instructors never do the same things two days in a row.

3. It works out your whole body. I am not exaggerating. I have muscles that hurt right now that I didn't even know existed. I played water polo in high school so I have had my fair share of being sore, but never this sore!

4. I feel so good after I am done with my class. Granted I might be ready to faint or fall over, I still feel good. Exhausted but happy.

5. I feel more healthy. I actually can tell my excercise is making a difference in my overall health. When I would go to the gym on my own I never felt like it made a difference. But now I do.

6. With Pilates you can choose how hard you want it to be. With every excercise the instructor will show you the begginers way to do it (my way for now) the intermediate and the pro way. For now, I will be doing the begginning, because if I did anything more I would have to call by husband to come pick me up off the floor after every class. But I like that once I master the beggining I can still go to the same class and do the more advanced moves.

7. It works on strengthing your whole body. Pilates seriously can work out any muscle you want it to. It focuses a lot on your "core". So you are working out your abs the entire time, but it is a very diverse excercise.

8. It also helps you with flexibility. After just a couple of months I can feel myself getting more flexible. I can almost do the splits on my left side. This is something I haven't been able to do since I danced in high school.

Okay, so I could keep going, but I think you get the point. I would recommend this to anyone! It is fun and challenging and definitely not boring. There are evern 2 or 3 brave men that come to the class every night so you can't use your sex as an excuse (although my husband does). The instructors at Gold's are amazing. They can seriouisly do it with their eyes closed and their hands tied behind their back. Plus they talk the whole time and never sound out of breath. They are crazy! Sometimes I will just sit and watch them. It really is a pretty excercise when you do it right. So go to Pilates or buy a tape and try it at home I promise you will like it!

A few more...

Ok....so maybe people are tired of seeing all my pots but I am just so dang proud of them that I don't care! I am taking my last class this summer and I am definitely going to be sad when it ends. A couple people have asked me to make pots for them....I can definitely try but I have to see what all I can get done. But if anyone has any requests I can definitely try. So here are a few more creations that I have brought home. I still have one more coming...

This is my coil project. I made a bunch of thin coils all the same size and then built the pot up with them. They are all connected on the inside. It was fun and easy.

These are my tiles that I made. We first made the mold of the original tile out of plaster. Then we made a bunch more from the mold and walla. I love the glaze on these. They turned out really good. I think I am going to hang three on my wall in a diagonal pattern. (Oh and FYI these are really easy and inexpensive because I still have the mold so if anyone wants a few let me know.)



This is the second teapot I have made. Let me just say that it turned out soooo much better than the first one I made. I really loved how it turned out. These are also pretty easy to make. It is missing the top in these pictures. The top got separated and didn't get fired at the same tip. Woops.



This is called a sager fired piece. Basically you put biodegradble items around it such as bananna peels, orange peels, copper wire, leaves and other items. Then you wrap all of it in newspaper to keep it together. It is fired at a slightly higher temp than the other pieces. And walla this is what is looks like. I love how the next two turned out. This is kind of a gamble because you never know exactly how they will turn out.


This is one of my favorite I think.

Summer Plans...

So I have a lot of other stuff to catch up on from the last couple weeks but those all involve pictures and I don't have my personal computer right now so I will do those posts in a couple days. I just thought that I would blog about a few of our summer plans.

One....school. Yes, I am not too happy about it. I have taken summer classes for 3 out of the 4 summers since I have been in college so I am a little bummed that I have to do another, but I just really want to get done and move back to California and this was the only way I could do that so here goes the 5th semester in a row!!! But I am really glad to be almost done with spring semester. I just have to put the finishing touches on a 9 page essay and turn that in tonight and I will be home free for a couple weeks. Sumer classes start up again on the 19th. I just took my last final this morning and it felt so good to walk out of that classroom knowing I won't have to be on campus for another couple weeks.

Don't get me wrong... I really do like the University of Utah. I am just starting to get really burnt out. I took 19 credits this semester and it just about killed me...literally there were a few times when I wanted to die!! (Just kidding of course). But let me just say one more time....YAY! I am loving my few weeks of freedom. Tomorrow I plan on having lunch with my sister...just the 2 of us. We haven't gotten to do that since she had my favorite niece Brielle. And after I am sure I will go back to her place so I can see my favortie niece for at least a little while.

Two...scrapbooking. I also plan on scrapbooking a lot! By a lot I mean the time from right after our honeymoon to now. I was very diligent in gettin our engagement months, wedding, reception and honeymoon done but failed to keep going after that. So I printed out about 150 pictures and loaded up on scraping supplies and plan to scrap until I fall asleep!! I know that I am going to probably print my blog out and get it put into a book, but there is also something very satisfying about making a scrap book with your own hands too so I am going to do both I guess.

Three...summer movies. Everyone knows that summer time produces the biggest blockbuster hits. So there are a few movies that Chad and I have had our eyes on. We kicked it off by seeing Wolverine on Saturday and it was awesome! We both really enjoyed it. The actors in it were all great. We especially liked Woverine, or Hugh Jackman, and Gambit, played by Taylor Kitsch of Friday Night Lights. I really liked him even before this movie so that was a plus.

We also plan on seeing Star Trek. I know I know. Believe me, I never thought I would see the day when I would actually want to see Star Trek but that day has come. I actually looks pretty cool. So that comes out this friday. It probably won't be an opening day movie for us but in a few weeks maybe.

Last, but not least Terminator. Also, another movie I really never thought I would have any desire to see. As much as a love Arnold Schwarzenegger as Califnornia's govenor (sarcasm, just in case you couldn't tell) I don't really care for him in movies. It just do anything for me. But Christian Bale is certainly no Arnold so I think we should be safe to see this one. Although I did hear this clip on the radio of Bale. He was totally cussing a light guy on the set of the movie for getting in his shot. I think he might have overreacted a little, but who can blame him? He's Batman and now John Conner. That's gotta put you in a little bit of an angry mood right?

Four- the Fray concert. We saw them once already in California a few months after we started dating and we are super excited to see them again! They are playing at the Usana ampitheater in West Valley on July 18. So far no one wants to go with us...don't know why? the Fray are awesome. So it looks like we might be flying solo.

Five- camping! Chad and I have had camping stuff all ready since we got married but have unfortunately gotten very little use out of it. Now that we have the Jeep we figure we really need to go camping a lot this summer. Since my birthday is usually right around Memorial Day we figured it would be the perfect weekend to get some people together and go camping! We are thinking of going down to Moab but aren't quite sure yet. Any suggestions for good places to camp? We are kinda leaning toward Moab but who knows? I really want to go river rafting too so Moab would be good for that. Anywho...those are our summer plans that we are most definitely looking foreward to. Yay for summer we can't wait!!