It's Official....We're Going CRUISIN'!!!

After months of talking about booking a cruise, we finally did it! Brady and I, along with some of our friends, will be venturing to the sunny cities of MEXICO in August! I am so excited to take a week off of work, relax in the Mexican sun and have a GREAT time! I posted some pictures of where we will be going and what the ship looks like. I've been to the Mexican Riviera before with my family and it was awesome! I can't wait to set sail again, especially with Brady because has never been on a cruise and it will be our first BIG vacation together. We've been on vacations to Vegas, St. George and places like that, but this will be our first BIG trip so I'm super excited! Let the good times roll!

The Little Things in Life

The other day I was riding trax home from work and this old man, whom I have become acquantences with, came and sat down next to me and said "I have something for you". I had no idea what he was talking about so I excitedly asked, "what do you mean, you have something for me?" He then grabbed his plastic bag and pulled out this lei that he had made! I was so surprised! How sweet of him to make one for me! All the way home we talked while he continued to make more of these leis for his children and grandchildren. Let me give you a little background on this man...He is one of the most spiritual and humble men that I have ever met. He's from Tonga and came to the U.S. when he was a little boy. In our conversations I've noticed that everytime we talk about the church and the prophet, his eyes get watery; he has such a love for the gospel! One thing I find amazing about him is that he has 10 children and still works full-time at the age of 67!!

As I've gotten older, I've realized the little things in life, like a home-made lei, are what makes life so special! Thanks to all of you that do the "little" things for me, they mean more than you'll ever know!

One of our new FAVORITE places is...

Ahh Sushi!

I've tried sushi before and wasn't too fond of it, but in the last couple of weeks I've REALLY started to like it and find myself craving it when I'm at work...don't worry, I'm not pregnant! My friends from work took me out to get sushi on Monday for my birthday and then Brady and I went and got it AGAIN today. Ahh Sushi is a great little place downtown where you get a great deal on sushi. We got the year membership for $13.00; you have to be a member or go with a member to eat there. During lunch time, as well as from 5:00-6:00 pm, all their rolls are 1/2 off...WOW! Brady and I got 2 rolls today for only $10.00, how cool is that?? If you haven't been there, we HIGHLY recommend it!

We did it!!

On Saturday we ran in the Salt Lake City Marathon and it was AWESOME! We did our first 1/2 marathon which is 13.1 miles and it definitely won't be our last! After spending most of the night on Friday at Nickelcade, I thought I would be dead tired, but surprisingly I wasn't. I had a hard time going to sleep because I kept invisioning myself crossing the finish line...weird, I know. The race started at 7:00 AM so we woke up at 5:00 AM, caught Trax around 6:00 AM and made it up to the U about 15 minutes before it started. There was loud music playing, a gospel choir singing and LOTS of people, it was such an exciting atmosphere! The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold, with a slight wind, it couldn't have been better. We didn't take any pictures before the race, but Missy was down at the finish line waiting to take our picture, what a GREAT sister! (My parents and Brady's parents were both out of town).





This is us at the finish line....how exciting! They were giving out water bottles, bananas, creamies, hot dogs, taquitos and all sorts of good food.

A banana creamie never tasted SO GOOD!

This is a picture of us taking our blood pressure after the race...I'm happy to say that we're both healthy!!

This is a picture of the home-stretch of the race. It started at the U and ended at the fountains at The Gateway. It was an amazing feeling running through a crowd of thousands of people hearing them cheer; an experience I'll never forget! After we had gone home and taken a nap, Brady surprised me with a couples massage at Massage Envy; it was AWESOME!! Our legs really needed it....my calfs are still SO TIGHT!

Happy Birthday to ME!

My birthday was this weekend and what a great weekend it was!! Friday morning I woke up to pink streamers thrown all over my hallway and front room with one of the cutest birthday cards from Brady. He spoiled me and got me a pair of jeans, 2 new shirts and a running jacket to wear for the marathon that was on Saturday (pictures for that are coming later today, as I need to get the pics off of Missy's camera). I went to work like normal and got a couple really sweet cards from my co-workers and then Shauna, my boss, gave me the balloon boquet you see in the picture below, how sweet, huh?! I left work early and Brady and I went out to eat and loaded up on carbohydrates for the race the next day. I guess the rule of thumb is that when you are running in an event, you need to eat as many carbs and as much pasta the week before as you can; I don't need to be told twice, so we went to Olive Garden and shared Chicken Alfredo and had a great time!!

Thanks to all of you for calling or texting me on my birthday, it really meant a lot to me and I really appreciate it! I love you all!!

Party at Nickelcade!

After Brady and I had stocked up on our carbs for the day, we went home and I fell asleep on the couch till about 9:30 pm. Brady woke me up and said we had to leave to go somewhere. I'll be honest, I was pretty tired and really ornery because I knew we had to wake up really early (5:00 am) for the 1/2 marathon the next day, but I gave in and went along with it. We ended up going to Nickelcade where we had a BLAST! Can I just tell you how much I LOVE Nickelcade? Some of our friends were there, which was a total surprise to me, and we had a great time! There was even a room set aside just for us to eat my birthday cake! My friends collected almost 3,000 tickets and got me some really sweet birthday presents...press-on tattoos, a play dolphin, nunchucks, handcuffs, silver chains, a flag with a unicorn on it....all sorts of random things that I'll probably never use, but Brady on the other hand, has already played with the handcuffs, used all the press-on tattoos and worn one of the silver chains...I guess it's the thought the counts, right??

Playing some basketball...

Jake and Belle

Cory, Kristie and cute little Talon. (Talon belongs to Jake and Belle, not Cory and Kristie)

Jumping on the bandwagon & going PRIVATE!

Just wanted to let you know that after thinking about it, Brady and I have decided to make our blog private, we feel it's good to do so for safety reasons. I think I have most all of your email addresses and if I don't, I think Mindy has most everybody, but please leave me a comment with your email so I can add it just in case she doesn't have yours. I'll probably make the transition at the beginning of next week. Thanks!!

Fly Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee

Brady was at TJ Maxx the other day and saw these "HIM" and "HER" boxing gloves and just couldn't pass them up. I was so excited when he brought them home...they're pink!! We like to act as if we're in a boxing ring boxing each other. We wanted to get you in on all the action and bring you into the ring with us. I think these pictures pretty much do the explaining...

WARNING: This video contains violent content!!

It may look and sound as if I'm hitting Brady really hard, but it wasn't THAT hard. I just get really in-the-zone when I'm in the ring. And in his defense, Brady knows better than to hit a girl, especially his wife, so he goes easy on me. And no, I didn't really hit him where it counts, I was just fakin' him out!!

Random post, random pictures

Nothing too exciting has been going on lately, but I knew it was time for me to update the blog so, sorry this isn't too exciting; at least it's something new for you to read, right?! The picture of me by myself was taken today because I got my hair done last night and wanted to show you all. It's nothing too drastic, but it's still different. This picture doesn't do it too much justice because the lighting isn't very good, but I did color it with 3 different colors: dark brown, lighter brown and blonde and cut my bangs and she also razored it in the back and on the sides so it's really layered.



Here are some random pictures of Brady and I from the past week. This one is from last weekend when we celebrated our friend, Shauna Wright's, birthday at Olive Garden. We LOVE Olive Garden, it's not too good on the waistline, but it's sure good for the tastebuds! We loved the breadsticks and salad and shared the asiago cheese steak entree, we highly recommend it, it's awesome!




This picture was taken in the car today when Brady met me at work and we went to lunch, it was so fun! It's always nice to get out of the office for an hour or so and break up the work day; especially when I can leave with my hubby! I swear we don't eat out all the time. We haven't eaten out in FOREVER, but for some reason in the past couple weeks we've already gone out twice!

Will the real Brady please stand up?

This is in response to Alesha's post that she did about 'Brady's twin' a couple weeks ago. She and my brother were in D.C. and saw this guy on the train and had to take a picture because they thought it looked just like Brady! Brady and I wanted to see how much alike they really are so we tried to reinact the picture...black earring, furry hood, glasses and all!! Also, Brady didn't even shave for a week in hopes that he could get the same facial hair effect as this guy and, as you can tell, he doesn't grow much hair! I can definitely see some small similarites, but I'll take my handsome handsome over anyone any day of the week!