A bangin' good weekend

Friday I went on a little date with Kenny. I love when he actually "asks me out" (even via text message). I spent the afternoon in anticipation flirting with him (again via text as we were both at work) looking forward to an evening of solo time with him. I love spending time with friends, but it's nice to go on a formal "date" with him occasionally. We caught an early showing of Be Kind, Rewind (entertaining, cute, and visually creative and interesting) and then with our remaining $3 in cash got an Orange Bang from The Hat. I love orange bangs...they're like drinking a dreamsicle (or 50-50 Bar, depending on where you grew up). It was an early evening, but fun all the same.

Saturday morning found me at the gym trying to burn some calories in anticipation of the baby shower I was attending later that morning. Mission accomplished - i didn't even indulge in the homemade toffee scones! The Bushman's have three kids already and Erika & Ben are truly inspiring parents. Super patient, fun and great teachers. We joined them one evening a while ago for their Family Home Evening where they had their two older kids (ages 10 and 8ish) reenact the parable of the talents. i got a glimpse of their excellent parenting when Ben reviewed a previous lesson.

Ben: "What's a talent? In this story it's like money. Do you remember what we should do with our money?"
Reeve: "Put it in the bank, like in savings."
Ben: "Right; do you remember why that's important?"
Gwenie: "So we can make more money! And we never know when we'll need it."

Like I said, amazing parenting. Anyway, I'm excited that they're bringing another child into the world. It's always nice when cool, good people are the ones procreating.

Later that day we got to witness the baptism of Dana Nixon. She's been investigating the Church for a little over a month and decided to follow Christ and be baptized. It was a sweet thing to witness. As a ward missionary, it's been cool (and often humbling) to be so involved with the investigators and we've had some wonderful additions to our ward over the last few years. I'm excited to see her continue to progress and enjoy the blessings of the gospel.

After that we joined Skyler & Elise and Bryce & Sarah for some good dinner, some K1 go-cart racing (where I came in dead last) and some Yogurt Land goodness. In all, not a bad weekend.

More Mammoth Fun

So our timing is kinda bad. We went to Mammoth the second weekend in February, but had we gone over President's Day Weekend we totally could have hung out with our best friends, also known collectivley to the American public as Brangelina. Oh well. Why anyone would want to fight the crowds at Mammoth on a holiday, let alone celebrities who generally shun crowds is beyond me.

Anyway, the weekend before was way better! Sunny, good snow, warm, and not too crowded. As usual, we went with Skyler and Elise, but were also joined by Bryce and Sarah Lindsey - who were really fun and creative. After a tiring day on the slopes we hung out at the village with each couple competing for the most awkward picture. Skyler's blow-fishing a restaurant window took the cake for that contest. We then took some great/creepy photos under this spotlight. Enjoy!
Elise...

Sklyer...

Sarah...

Bryce...

Jill...

Kenny...

Catch-up

SO...it's been a busy two weeks. Mammoth, sickness, Valentine's Day, sucking at ballet (but loving it anyway), and working extra hard at my job (considering performance reviews are just around the corner). That being said, I'd like to pay a quick, but well-deserved tribute to my dream-boy.

To begin, I'll tell a little story. I love Chloe. I'm not brand-obsessed, it's just that I'll be flipping through any fashion magazine and see something I like and 90% of the time it will end up being Chloe. I recently learned that my subconsious Chloe radar extends beyond their amazing clothing to their perfume as well. I came across an open sample, tried it, loved it (it reminds me of being in Paris at 13 all over again), and it ended up being Chloe's new perfume. I've always joked to kenny that he'll know I feel financially secure when I actually purchase something by Chloe. Well Kenny decides to get me the perfume for V-Day. Mind you Kenny works in Hollywood and takes the train. SO to accomplish this task, he borrows one of his workers' big diesel work-trucks, and heads off to Beverly Hills on his lunch break. After discovering that Nordstroms and Macy's don't carry it (Saks is apparently the exclusive distributor) he treks off to Rodeo drive. As many may know, you HAVE to valet park on Rodeo Dr. which Kenny does (I would have loved to see the valet when Kenny rolled up in a dirty diesel truck). Kenny is a foreman for a concrete company. He was dirty, his clothes were dirty, his hair was dusty and matted from wearing a helmet. Not exactly proper attire for shopping there. Anyway he gets the perfume, and returns to the vallet to discover the truck won't start, so Kenny has to go get it started himself. The excersion took two hours. And the best part is that Kenny didn't think there was anything unusual about this story - it was just another day in the life of the most kind, giving, talented, confident, and determined man I've ever known. Thanks, darling.

If any of you happen to pass me and catch a slight sent of a great combo of floral and citrus, you can know that I'll be thinking of how much my husband loves me and how far he'd be willing to go to do something thoughtful for me. I'm pretty dang lucky.

Week in Review...

So this was a decent week. Not for any good reason, but it's early Saturday morning and I feel okay relaxing for once. I always know if I've been sufficiently productive during the week if I don't feel obligated to do a million (necessary, but not enjoyable) tasks (i.e. wash the car, laundry, dishes, organized some corner or closet, etc.) Today I'm going to enjoy some time at the gym, take care of my cute husband (who is still feeling sick this weekend), explore the model homes at this new development in Anaheim, and make some baby gifts. I found this great new fabric store, Purl SoHo (purlsoho.com), that has ingnited the creative bug. While I won't have any of their fabric for todays projects, their stuff is so amazing that I'm inspired and I can't wait. Oh well, the local JoAnne's will have to do.

So this week I was fairly productive at work (it's drastically slowed down these past two weeks, and I struggled making my self be busy last week as a result. Needless to say, last Saturday I did not feel okay relaxing!) I really like my job and the people I work with; I'm really lucky. Anyway, I did a lot of yoga, worked on my calling as "ward missionary to the young single adults", started a ballet class (yikes!) and saw a lot of friends. AND kept my house relatively clean!

Looking forward, I have a feeling this next week is going to dddddrrrrrraaaaagggggg on. We're going to MAMMOTH again next weekend and the anticipation is already KILLing me. They got more snow during this last week than they did all of last season! My yoga friend, Ben Do, even got snowed in! (I was sooo jealous!) So here's some photos from the last Mammoth trip in mid-January (taken by my rad-tastic brother-law, Justin aka Hudd).

Jill ... and Hudd - can you see him?

Mike Norwood, Hudd, Jill, Kenny on chair 6

LOVE this one. Kenny, Hudd, Skyler

My handsome husband.

We got Elise to head up to the top! a) it was beautiful; clear, warm, and a killer view. Up top, we ran into (what Skyler's friend, Dave, so aplty calls) "the rockers" - a group of Skyler's friends from high school. They were all excited to see Elise make it to the top, and Elise had one take this photo to prove to Skyler that she was there.

Cat tracks can be pretty tiring when you're learning! I stopped being a slave driver to Elise and let her take a break here.

We couldn't just rest...so of course we posed for pictures to pass some time. (Hudd, Kenny, then Elise & Jill)



Relaxing at Main Lodge after a fun (and always tiring) day.

Rock City

So my cousin recently told of a rock climbing excursion she took for her birthday and then I found some great pictures of rock climbing...so rock climbing was on the brain this weekend. While we didn't make it on Saturday as planned (we got side tracked with some sushi and surround sound action at Skyler and Elise's instead) we did make it to Rock City in Anaheim Hills on Monday night with Nicole and Jeff Thompson (Kenny's sister and bro-in-law.) It was SOOOO fun...and quite the work out! My arms are still like noodles. I (as always) took way too many pictures, so enjoy!

Kenny at the top (great pose)-

Jeff The Climber-

Kenny & Jeff -

Kenny, the silhouette (stretch those legs!)-

In addition to the climbing walls was this narrow tunnel that went inside one of the main structures. After crawling through in the pitch dark there was a pole going straight up to the ceiling and then more tunnels. It was (again) super narrow and dark the whole time. So fun! Nicole and I took awhile to get through it, but made it!

Here's Nicole (at the entrance)

We're in that little hole way up at the top -

We made it!

Yeah, we thought we were pretty tough.

I did do some actual climbing -

So did Nicole (Kenny and Jeff were really into it)

Even at the top of the wall, Nicole will pose for the camera...

...but she'll also get down and dirty to get a good picture of someone else.

Thanks again for coming with us, Nicole and Jeff! It was so fun (and we would highly recommend it to others)!

Torn - but leaning toward the annoyed

I like that people use the coming of a new year to make resolutions to better themselves, I really do. I don't think it's something that should have to wait until a new year, but I understand and appreciate the tradition. However, there's one thing I do hate: the gym gets SO crowded during the first few weeks of January. I hate that one week I can hop on the treadmill as I enter the gym, and the next there's a line 10 people long - just because it happens to be January. My yoga class before Christmas had 10-15 people in it, this week it had 30-40. It's really frustrating when you've developed a habit and routine and it gets interrupted like this! Part of me is happy that it doesn't last very long, but I'm sad for all those who started out strong, but don't make it. I almost don't even want to go to the gym in January. Earlier this week Kenny and I tried to go, but gave up after 15 minutes and ended up jogging for two miles - in a parking structure. (Honestly it was actually pretty cool, but still...) I persevered, and made it three times this week, crowds and all! I deserve a treat...and I'm going to get one: Mammoth tomorrow! And they got eight feet of new snow this week! Happy riding!

Happy Coincidence

It was one of those mornings where I couldn't focus. Too many things were on my mind and I was easily distracted at work. To cure the problem i started to write everything down to be able to clarify what exactly was bothering me. Not the best use of my time at work, but I wasn't getting anything else done, so I figured, "Why not?" Anyway, it worked! I identified the problem allowed myself a quick emotional moment in the corner of my cubicle...that sounds so pathetic!) and decided a piece of dark chocolate would cheer me up, so I went to search the women's offices for a piece (because the women in my office ALWAYS have crap like that at their desk.) I found some Dove chocolate - the kind that has a cheesy saying on the inside of the wrapper. Anyway, I opened it and read: "It's a bubble bath kind of day." After staring at it mid-bite, I just started laughing. AMEN; it was a bubble bath kind of day! So when I finish writing this that's what I'm going to do.