Christmas!

I love Christmas! I never realized how much I look forward to my parents house being completely decorated, until I wasn't around to see it. I kept telling myself that I didn't want to store a Christmas tree, but that didn't last long. Black Friday Lyle and I bought a little tree for our new little condo. We bought our condo in October and I feel like we're just settling in. It's in the Avenues in Salt Lake and I love this area! Our apartment was right downtown, and while I miss that, I love the ambiance of the neighborhoods here. Fall was absolutely gorgeous will all of the mature trees turning colors! I'll post pictures of the condo eventually when my house is clean. Lately we've been too busy with finals and our little trip, but my finals are over and Lyle is done as of tonight. I'm so looking forward to 3 weeks without school but I know that it will go by too fast.

We've done a few fun Christmas things so far, with a lot more to come as Christmas gets closer. The most fun thing so far is going to Pittsburgh and all of the different things we could see there. There were so many huge decorated trees everywhere all over in buildings and outside. The gingerbread houses were pretty cool too. We also went to temple square with my family. I love spending time with either of our families! We haven't had a family party yet, which is slightly weird because this year they are all after Christmas, but that's ok because it means that Christmas just lasts longer!

One of my favorite things I've done for Christmas is making my nephew's Christmas present. One of my nephews is 4 and him and his brother like to play superheros. My mom had given the older one a reversible superman/batman cape when he was little, but I thought it was time that the younger brother got one too. I decided that this one was going to be super cool, so I started my sewing project. Not only is it reversible, but the emblems on them are velcroed on so that they can be interchangeable. I just finished it and wrapped it today! It was the last gift that I needed to wrap and it's a very good feeling to be done! These are the four that I've made, but really this project can be added to as his interests change.

Batman

Spiderman (even though I know spiderman doesn't have a cape)

Captain America

Superman

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! And I wish those that still have shopping to do the best! Good luck!

Pittsburgh!

So we just got back from Pittsburgh late last night. It was a very very short trip, where we spent more time on a plane or at the airport than we actually did in the city during those two days, but it was worth it. We went to see a hockey game and the Penguins won, in overtime! Lyle wanted it to be close and exciting and it was. Overtime is sudden death in hockey, so the first one to score in overtime wins it all. It was very intense.

This is the marquee outside the arena.

We watched the Stanley Cup Finals together last year and Lyle was so excited that they won!

The guy on the ground in the middle is Sydney Crosby aka the cutest guy in the NHL.

I have a lot of pictures of everyone's backsides. I guess that's the problem when they are warming up on the opposite side of the arena

Our awesome front row seats!! We sat right next to the visiting team's penalty box.

The first face off at the beginning of the game.

The blue guy in the middle is Malkin. He's pretty much amazing.

The Pittsburgh Penguins players.

My view of the game. It was pretty intense.

Lyle is even the one taking the picture but he can't take his eyes of the game.

The team after they won.

Malkin was the MVP of the game.

This is a replica of the Nativity that is at the Vatican.

Our 4 star hotel that was actually cheaper than anywhere else. It was very elegant and the lobby was always full of people eating and they had a real pianist there for the background music.

This tree is in the middle of an ice rink. All of the buildings that surround it have a cool castle like top. It was pretty neat.

There were so many gingerbread houses that were for sale, with the proceeds going to charity. Some were absolutely amazing.

There were also "Santa" figurines from all different cultures. This is the one for Italy. It's really the person who scares bad kids, but oh well!

There were some cool bridges in Pittsburgh because it's in the middle of two rivers. The PNC baseball park is right on the other side of this particular bridge.

Our last view of the city as we were driving out.

Overall it was a good trip. It was nice to get away, even if it was just a weekend trip. The game was so much fun!

My lovely weekend!

So Saturday night we went to a Real game with my sister and her husband. It was a good game even though neither team scored. The real fun happened after the game. We parked at the Wells Fargo parking lot on 300 South in between Main and State. We had taken Trax down to the game so we only had to walk half a block from Main St to the parking lot. Somehow I didn’t see the end of the sidewalk where the curb was and when I took my next step my ankle turned and something cracked. I was bawling and Lyle had to carry me back to the car. He insisted that we go to the hospital. All of this was at like 10 pm. By the time we decided what we were doing and actually got to the hospital it was 11 pm and by the time we were done at the hospital, it was midnight. It’s not broken but I sure did something to a ligament or a tendon or something that is in my ankle. I decided to show everyone how proud I am of my gigantic bruise that goes all the way from the middle of the top of my foot to the sole on the right side, all the way from my toes to my heel. It’s much worse in real life! The pictures don’t even do it justice! I’ve been on crutches for the last 2 days but I think I can start putting weight on it possibly tomorrow. It makes work really difficult so I can’t wait to be back to normal!

My foot is so fat!

My heel is a really gross purple.

Sorry!

I've been neglectful of my blog. This summer has been so much fun but I've been lazy and haven't even uploaded the pictures on my camera to my computer. I think I've covered pretty much everything so get ready for lots of stuff!

Demolition Derby

Lyle and I decided earlier this summer that we would recreate our first date by going to the Weber County demolition derby. It was so much fun the first time and this time did not disappoint, except that is happened to be one of the coldest nights of the summer!

We were on the first row. We kept getting sprayed by the dirt but it was an awesome view!

All-Star Game

We bought a pack of tickets of Real Salt Lake games through out the summer and we were lucky enough to get tickets to the All-Star game.

This was the half time entertainment. They were pretty talented with a soccer ball!

The stadium is awesome! I don't think there is a bad seat.

We were sitting right behind the north goal where they ended the game in penalty shots. Sad enough, the All-Stars lost :(

Hogle Zoo

We went to Hogle Zoo with the grandkids on Lyle's side of the family over Pioneer Day Weekend. It was really fun and hopefully we helped entertain the kids for a while because Lyle's sister and brother-in-law were in St. George so Grandma was watching the kids all weekend.

All of the kids loved the animals!

The cute monkeys!

He is so proud of his team, the Pittsburgh Penguins! They won the Stanley cup earlier this year. We had to take a picture of the shirt with the "mascot"

Bees game...sort of

So we had these awesome plans to go to the Bee's game on the 24th and then there were fireworks after the game. Well we get there and are told that the visiting team was sick and couldn't make it. So instead there were two high school traveling competition teams that did an exhibition game and the best 5 hitters between the Bees and the 2 high school teams did a homerun derby. It ended up being an ok night because for each ticket we were given vouchers for 2 Bees game tickets, a preseason Jazz game ticket, and a Miller Motor Sports ticket. It was well worth the money!

The poor pitcher had to pitch for all of the homerun hitters. They each got 10 misses and as many homeruns as they could hit. You could tell he was tired when he was done.

We are proud employees of MACU

Pioneer Days Rodeo

My family has a yearly tradition of going to the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo. The kids had more fun playing with each other than they did actually watching the rodeo but they were all dressed so cute! The boys had on vests and fake boot/shoe covers and hats and my little girl had a pink cowgirl hat.

Birthdays!

Both of us are summer babies so we've both celebrated birthdays since we've been married. We both worked on my birthday and then went to Tucanos in the Gateway. For Lyle's birthday we both took the day off and played a bit. We started off by sleeping in and then getting lunch at Subway that we took to Memorial Grove which is right up the street from our house. After lunch we decided to go mini golfing here in Salt Lake. We are both from up north so we have no idea where a good place to go is or anything like that. We went to this golf course on 3300 south. It was a really decent price because it was a Monday, but we later found out that it is right next to a land fill, which made our time a little interesting. It was a pretty warm day so then we went home and slept. Later that night we went to P.F. Changs for dinner. It was so yummy!

He was so serious...haha

Lyle trying to be Happy Gilmore. If you look behind him you can see the land fill.

Me attempting to golf. I am absolutely no good.