Birthday Success!

I know...it's polka-dots, it was either that or roses!

Well, Seth is officially 27, and so far he seems to be handling it quite well. We started off the day with blue pancakes (Seth's favorite color), they were quite tasty. We both had to work, but I was able to sneak some cupcakes over to Seth's studio in between my clients. I picked Seth up after work, and we met up with Kellie and Phil and went over to Matt and Arian's to watch the Utes season opener. Ouch, not exactly a birthday game. We knew we were in trouble, when our up and coming star running back broke his leg in the first quarter. Yes, it was definitely a break, we rewound the TiVo, and watched in slow-motion. Most (perhaps, not all) human legs do not have joints in the shin area. It was nasty. Then we lost our quarterback, good grief! Clearly the team is suffering without me in the MUSS! Thankfully, Seth's awesome polk-a-dot ice cream cake (mint chocolate chip) lifted his spirits. As well as his cool gifts, The Office season 1 & 2, and a new wallet. Ah, I love birthdays, even if they do mean we're getting along in the years! Hehehe :)

Happy Birthday Seth!

It's Seth's big day, so it's all about Seth today. I really think I'm the luckiest girl to be married to a guy like Seth. It's hard to believe that it's been over 4 years since it all began. If you would have told me back then, that I would get to marry "The Crush" I would have never believed you. I had high expectations before we'd ever met, and he continually meets and far exceeds any expectations I had ever dreamed of. In honor of his birthday, here are some of the top reasons I love him!
1. He has a way of making others feel comfortable around him, without even trying.
2. He always sees the good in everything and everyone.
3. He makes amazing dinners (if he gets home from work before me, dinner will be MUCH tastier!)
4. He is always up for an adventure, and encourages me to step outside my comfort zone.
5. He is spiritual, without being weird!
6. He is confident in who he is, and doesn't need to look to others for approval. (Yet he's far from being cocky)
7. He loves me unconditionally, and will even go to the store at 3 am, just to buy me cold medicine!
8. He sets a good example to those around him.
9. He is dedicated and an extremely hardworker.
10. He loves life, and truly enjoys every minute to the fullest.

Those are just a few of the gazillion reasons I love Seth. I also like that he fills up my car, does the dishes, picks up the house, washes the cars, runs with me (even though he despises running) and has never ending patience with me!

He's seriously the greatest guy, and I'm grateful that he looked past the fact that I'd stalked him for months, and asked me out. I have never regretted any time we have spent together. I love his guts!!!

Being Sick nose- Blows

I hate being sick. I am no stranger to colds or sinus infections, call them what you may, they are awful. I could feel the cold coming on last night, but thought if I ignored it, it might seek someone else for attention. Not so! I was rudely awakened at 2:30 this morning with a horrible sore throat. A sore throat so bad, that I'd rather spit then have to swallow. After tossing and turning for several hours, I think I finally fell asleep just in time for my alarm clock to go off, of course! I had to work today, so Seth drugged me up and sent me on my way. I survived the day (barely), thanks in large part to a hot cup of cider at work, and several boxes of tissues. My nose is raw, my throat aches, my lungs feel like they are being squeezed, and painfully, I can feel the hair on my head growing! Tonight I am planning on a NyQuil-induced coma to get me through the night. Let's pray it works. The worst part of this inconvenience (besides the sporadic drips from my nose) is Seth's birthday is tomorrow and I need to be 110% so we can party! Well, that's all I have to say about that!! Strangely I feel better :)

Uh, Drew...it's raining

We were down at Mom & Dad's last Sunday, and it started pouring, we took Drew out to look at the rain, and he wanted to go stand out in it. It was pretty funny to watch him.

Well...see ya later!

Tuesday, Ryan flew out to go to the MTC, and Seth and I had the honor of hosting him. We went downtown in the afternoon and had an awesome tour of the Conference Center. Our tour guide realllly knew her stuff. It was a lot of fun. We wandered around downtown for a while, we took random pictures of Ryan in front of the construction in SLC, so that we can document the changes when he gets back in two years. We went out for a nice dinner at Biaggi's and came home and we all passed out! (At 8:30!)

We packed up Ryan and headed down to Provo to enter the big MTC. He seemed a little nervous, but handled it all really well. Seth followed him all around with his camera, taking pictures of EVERYthing Ryan did. It was a lot of fun. We sat through the little devotional and then said bye as Ryan walked through the
"missionary only" doors. We were proud of ourselves, we didn't even tear up! Ryan is going to make an excellent missionary, he'll be serving in the Barcelona, Spain mission. Woohoo!

Missionary Ryan

Operation: Maryland Surprise!

A few weeks ago, Seth and I got the crazy idea to fly out to Maryland for a weekend. His little brother and sister (Ryan and Laura) are headed out on LDS missions, and they were going to be speaking in church. We decided to make it a surprise and didn't tell anyone about it. A week before we were supposed to leave we found out that Dan was going to be flying about the same time as us. We decided he's a pretty trusty guy and informed him of our plans. Because the family was coming to pick him up at the airport, we decided we'd unveil our big surprise there, instead of just showing up on the doorstep, as originally intended. The delayed, redeye flight, running through the Atlanta terminal and the non-reclining seats (never sit in the row in FRONT of the exit row...curse them!) were all worth it when we saw the looks on everyone's faces! It was awesome!

We spent Saturday tagging along as Laura and Joanie gave Dan a whirlwind tour of DC, and then we kids returned in the evening to do a session at the temple. After the temple, we went back down to the Mall and saw the monuments in the dark. Very cool.

Sunday we went to church and Ryan and Laura gave great talks. Even if we had kept them out late the night before. All the family came over for a tasty lunch of crab cakes and fried chicken, ahhh I love Maryland crab cakes. It was fun to just hang out with the fam, we don't get to see them near enough.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and Seth and I had to take off Monday afternoon, but before leaving we spent an eventful morning tie-dying t-shirts. It was a ton of fun, Seth and I have been wearing our shirts with pride!



Oh...surprise! We kinda need a ride home from the airport...it made for a tight squeeze (there were three more in the front two seats!)






A nice night in DC.

Behold, by the magical power of our wands we will make most excellent t-shirts!






Well...the at least the magical powers worked on their shirts!





For more fun pics check out our Maryland Surprise album :)

Maryland Surprise

So...We're Addicted.

Alright...I guess it's safe to confess Seth and I are addicted to So You Think You Can Dance! (Yes, both of us.) After watching it last summer, we were counting down the months til it started this year! This was by far our favorite dance. It's awesome, we probably replayed it ten times (not lying!) We were so glad that Sabra won last night. We were excited about that. If you missed an episode, don't worry, we have ALL of them TiVoed :) Just in case we start to have withdrawals in January!

Hot...Hot...Hot!

Yes. That's out thermostat, and yes...it does say 87 degrees. The sad part about it is that's the coolest it's been in weeks. I was so excited to see it go below 90 that I had to take a picture!! No, we do not have AC, and well...it's been a freakishly hot summer. I just thought I'd post this, so you now know why we haven't been having too many get-togethers at our house this summer :) And...to thank those of you kind enough to invite Seth and I over to your air conditioned sanctuaries! I love summer, but I sure am excited for fall!

Weekend with Drew!

Drew was back for another weekend with Uncle Seth & Aunt Geri, while his parents escaped to celebrate their anniversary.

Seth was the designated bath-man.

I was in charge of bedtime.

Drew is definitely NOT a messy eater!

Yes, that's oatmeal alll over him...in the car.

Laura & Dan came over for a birthday BBQ and Drew LOVED the watermelon. Silly kid.

Sprinkler time with Mason!

We love hanging out with the nephews!

Fixer Uppers

Well, a few months ago I started to get a bit stir-crazy in our apartment, and I decided it was time to fix a few things.
First up, the living room! I thought it would be a piece of cake to make slipcovers for the couches and recover the pillows. Well...it was something alright!

Before


Voila!

Then, that wasn't quite enough, so after "inheriting" a new dresser and armoir, I decided our closet could use an overhaul. We've only been suffering with our mini-closet for two years. Seth has been using the coat closet in the front room this whole time, we thought it would be nice if he could finally hang SOME of his clothes in our room!


Caution, object in picture is SMALLER in real life!


Dad was awesome and helped us out with our home improvement project. It was a tight fit in the closet.


It was too much for me. I fell asleep while we were sorting out our clothes!


Yeah!!

If only those were the only projects we've been up to. We've also changed our desk, aka built a new one, and changed some our bathroom up a bit. (Don't worry, Byron, you're painting is still hanging in it's spot!) It's been fun. Well, at least I've had a good time, I think Seth is looking forward to putting his feet up! Ha!

24 Hour Swim!

Well, I'm afraid other than the videos, this is all I have to show for the Country Club's 24 hour swim party! Seth and I zipped back from Youth Conference, just in time for the start of the awards ceremony. Needless to say, I wasn't very focused! It's sad that another swim team season is over. We hope we are back next year, but who knows. A lot can happen in a year. It was a great night, however, complete with the annual sawdust scramble. A mad grab for any token in the sawdust could result in winning a sweet prize, such as...an iPod, Nano, $100, massages, and other awesome prizes. I am never very good in the scramble, however, this year, I was somewhat victorious, I came out with a tootsie roll!! Seth won a water gun. The party is an all nighter on the deck of the pool. Seth and the kids played Toypedo Madness until well after midnight, and the majority of the kids finally quieted down sometime around 4am. Or at least that's when I passed the point of consciousness and just passed out! We'll miss the kids, and judging by the cute thank you notes Seth got, I think they will miss him too!! For serious entertainment, check out the Sawdust Madness videos :)

Seth's Sawdust Madness

Geri's Sawdust Madness

Flaming Gorge Goodness

After last weekend's Ward Campout, Seth and I were all prepared for another round of church camping! Thursday morning Seth and I woke up bright and early to go to Youth Conference. We met at the church at 6 am, and I think we were finally on the road somewhere around 7 am! We were headed up to Flaming Gorge. We were camping just outside of Dutch John, and I haven't been there in years, but I do remember it relatively green. Well...apparently that was before a forest fire whipped through the area a few years ago. We got to our campground and instead of having nice green trees it was a bunch of tree skeletons! It was sad to see the damage done by a forest fire. However, it's cool to see the land fighting back...there were some green weeds! We set up camp, and then spent the afternoon playing games. They had broken us up into two teams, the Lamanites and the Nephites. It was a lot of fun, our team wasn't so hot in the games, but what we lacked in talent we made up for in personality! That night we had an amazing feast, and then each team was supposed to come up with a skit based on a scripture story about missionaries. We told the story of Ammon to the tune of Sesame Street's theme song. And we threw in a rapping Ammon, courtesy of Spencer. It was a lot of fun...to give you an idea, instead of singing, "can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street", it went something like this: "Can you tell us how to join, so we don't get our arms cut off?" (Sung by the sheep slayers). It was awesome.
Friday morning, we were shuttled to the based of the dam (Seth insisted I lay off the "dam" jokes around the kids!) We had 4 rafts, and about 25-30 people. We all piled on and started off on our 7 mile trek down the Green River. The guy who rented us the rafts gave a big long speech about the dangers and risks involved in navigating this river, he made it sound like we were attempting the white water near Moab or something! Not to mention, after his speech we were pretty sure at least one or two kids would end up dead by the end of the trip! He was a little intense. Anyway, we start down the river, which was accurately compared to the Lazy River at Seven Peaks! We had a pretty fierce group in our raft, and I was the gunman. It didn't take long for the waterfights to start, and I was responsible for defending our ship. I don't know why they made me the gunner, I have horrible aim. Maybe it was all the pirate jokes I told the night before, they thought I'd make a good renegade! I don't know. But it didn't take long for me to realize that by holding the water gun, I was everyone else's target. Yikes! Anyway, before too long we were all soaked and having a great time. We were able to make it through all of the rapids with everyone in the boat, sometimes we went backwards through them, other times sideways, and occasionally we hit them head on. We seemed to run into more trouble getting stuck on the rocks under the water.
It had been overcast the entire morning, and somewhere around 4 miles we started hearing thunder...about a half-mile later...maybe a mile, it started to sprinkle, within two minutes the sprinkling turned into torrential downpour (I don't exaggerate!) We were getting soaked, and the rain was coming down in sheets. It was actually quite pretty. Thankfully the wind was to our backs, and we pushed ahead to make it to the end of the river. When we finally saw the ramp in the distance it was all speed ahead! I am pretty sure the raindrops themselves were the size of baseballs...okay, maybe golfballs! We were the first raft in, and helped everyone else get to shore as well. Unfortunately, Seth and I could not stay and play with our dripping comrades, we had to be back in SLC that evening. We ran to the car, and popped into the restroom to change our clothes, and as I ran into the bathroom I realized that's where our entire ward was hiding! It was funny. I can't even begin to describe how wet we were. We hope everyone had a great time the rest of the day (they weren't coming home until Saturday) and that they eventually dried out! I think somewhere around Evanston (about 2.5 hours into the drive) I stopped dripping! It was so much fun, and great to be around the youth in our ward.

Flaming Gorge Goodness pics

Attack at the Gas Station!

It was late Wednesday night, and we needed to get gas in the car before heading to Flaming Gorge the next day. While Seth was pumping gas he noticed a "leaf bug" near the pump, being Seth he had to play with it. It was pretty entertaining to watch, so I had to pull out my camera and video it. Little did I know the little guy would come after me!

Watch "Attack at the Gas Station"

Country Club Swimmin'

This past week was the Country Club Swim Conference. A HUGE deal to the kids. It was Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Salt Lake Country Club came in third. They were excited about that, but more importantly the coaches won their relay. Which is what really matters to the kids... and parents! Every year, at the end of the conference championships the coaches swim a 200 medley relay. For the last two years Seth and his fellow coaches have won. This year was no different, they truly smoked the other coaches. It's fun to watch Seth swim, it's been a while since I've seen him swim...(since last year's relay) One parent told us she was at the gym the following morning and overheard her husband and his buddies talking about how amazing Seth swam. She said it was funny to hear the macho guys talking about Seth like that :) The parents really get into the race...sometimes I think his job depends on it!!

View "The Race"