Update

Dan with our nephew at Sand Hollow.

I suppose after Claire's update I should give a little update on Dan and myself.  As for Dan, he has been busy building websites and sending wrenches to truckers all over the U.S. (a side business he has).  He and his friend are also working on a new business called Tall Slim Tees which are t-shirts for tall skinny guys! So if you know any tall skinny guys, his shirts will be for sale soon.  He is still working on getting the sizes just right.  He is also busy working with the Young Men in our ward and the boys love having him as a leader.  This week the boys are coming over to learn how to grill.  In his free time he has been writing some original piano music, which Claire and I love to hear.

As for me (sorry no picture), I have been busy starting a playgroup in our neighborhood where we head to the park, pool, or splash pad each week.  I've also started walking with some friends in the mornings and love it.  The weather has been so nice!  I'm also busy planning reunions, trips, parties and more for this summer.  It seems we've got something going on almost every week!  I've also made a summer bucket list and we've already checked off some of the activities including the beach at Sand Hollow (pictured above).  I got called to Cub Scouts a few months ago and I wasn't so sure about it, but I actually love it.  It might be the best calling I've ever had.  I just help with pack meeting, so I only go once a month.  I like it because I can take Claire, it's pretty laid back and they do some fun things!  Usually I help with treats so the kids like me :).  Just last week we took a trip to Arizona to meet up with some of my old roommates.  We had such a blast and enjoyed being in a new place.  The weather actually turned out to be so nice and we ate at some of the best restaurants.  Aside from the long drive (lots of crying...) we had a great time!

We are busy and happy.  We love the start of summer and are looking forward to spending more time together as a family as well as seeing extended family and friends!

Friends

A couple of weeks ago our good friends, Miquette & Jon, & their baby, Elijah, came to visit.  Elijah is about 6 weeks older than Claire, so it was lots of fun having another little friend in the house.  We already decided one day they will probably get married :).  It was so nice having friends who also had a little baby here because they completely understood feeding schedules and nap time schedules.  Somehow we were able to work around both babies' schedules and have some fun!

The first night we went to eat the best pancakes in the world at the Black Bear Diner.  They agreed, they were the best pancakes they had ever eaten.  The next day we went walking (they were so excited to be in our warm weather) and while the men were working, Miquette and I (and the babies) went shopping and to Yogurtland.  The babies were angels and slept the whole time!  My favorite part while we were shopping was when Miquette was trying on clothes so I was standing with both babies, and a boy around 10 years old said to me... "are they triplets?"  hahaha what?  I showed him there were just 2 babies and only one of them was mine.  I told him I did not want that many babies!  haha :)  On Saturday before they left we did a little more shopping at the outlets and then had lunch at Chick-fil-a.

It was so great seeing them, we hope they come back soon!

Tummy time together!  Claire is working on it, even though she hates it.  One day she'll lift her head as good as Elijah!

Claire & Me, Miquette & Elijah.  So fun having babies about the same age!

On our walk.  Such great Dad's pushing the babies!

Labor Day Weekend

For the long weekend we went up north to my parent's house.  The weather felt so good!  While up there we went nursery furniture shopping at Ikea and spent lots of time with family and friends.  It was fun to see a lot of people.  On Monday we had a BBQ with my family and I made sure to snap a picture with my sister, Noelle.  She is pregnant too.  She is having a boy.  Here we are:

Belly shot!  Noelle: 20 weeks, Me: 18 weeks

I feel like the last couple of weeks my belly has really popped out.  On Friday I am having another ultrasound and will know for sure if we are having a girl.  I hope so, otherwise I will have a lot of returning to do!

Such a great weekend!  Now back to normal life.  

Solar Eclipse

Just a few weeks ago there was a solar eclipse (when the moon passes in front of the sun) and St. George just happened to be a great place to view it.  My sister Noelle, her husband, Jared, & his parents all drove down just to see it.  Along with them we also invited some neighbors over and had a little solar eclipse party in our front yard.  It ended up being one of the coolest things I have ever seen!

You have to wear these special glasses so the sun doesn't burn your eyes!

Noelle and me!

The neighbors!  More and more people showed up once they heard we had the best setup and treats!

I took this picture with my phone of the eclipse!  Even the camera lens had to be covered with the dark glasses.

My high tec brother in law was able to hook up his computer to their telescope, so everything you could see through the telescope also appeared on his computer screen.  It was so cool!  A great way for lots of people to see the eclipse close up.  Plus it was nice being able to come inside the air conditioned house for a break.

Once the sun went down we stayed out and used the telescope to look at the night sky.  We found Saturn!  This is the view through the telescope.  It was SO cool.  You could see it's rings, which was awesome!  It was a lot clearer in person, a little blurry on the camera.

It was such a fun evening!  We liked being astronomers for a day.

The Johansens

Oh hello, yes we are still alive!  I know, it's been a while.  In fact, i've been meaning to write this post for weeks.  Back in the middle of April our friends, Alyse & Zach, came to visit!  They actually stayed at his parent's 2nd home in Hurricane, but we got to see them lots.  We had so much fun!  I told them they should just move down here and live in his parent's 2nd home, cuz why not?!  Alyse has been one of my best friends for a long time.  We've known each other probably since we were 3 and we've always been friends because we have the exact same birthday.  She is my twin!

While they were here we went to this fun restaurant and ate outside, went zip lining, went mini golfing twice, played games on our back patio, grilled delicious food, made s'mores in our firepit, and got huge shakes at Iceburg.  It felt like we were on vacation too!

Here are some pics of the fun times we had with the Johansens!

Zip Lining: 
Not sure what that is?  Basically you climb a tall tower, they hook your harness to these cables that are connected to another tower, then you jump off the first tower and ride down to the next tower.  Once I got to the top I freaked out a little, but we jumped and had a blast!  I am now ready to try another zip line (i'm thinking Park City this summer)!

In our harnesses and ready to go (the men decided not to do it though).

Mini Golf Game #1: 

See?  We are clearly twins :)

We love mini golf!

Alyse demonstrating her golf pose.  Zach was the mini golf champ.

Game Night:

I think we played our new game, the Logo game, three times while they were here.  And thanks to Dan's grandma, we had this awesome new patio set to play on.  That combined with warm evenings made it a perfect setting for games.  

Gamers and new patio set!

Check out the new outdoor lights we hung up.  I love them.  Thank you Target!

Mini Golf Game #2:

In case you were wondering, we went mini golfing on two different days.  All in the same day would have been a little much.  

Glow in the dark mini golf!  Couples pic on the zebra bench.

Glow in the dark golden gate bridge.

Always fun with Alyse & Zach!

And here's our creepy chicken.  Dan can't resist a good claw game.

Those are all of the pictures I took of our fun times.  Sorry if they are not the best quality, I have just gotten in the habit of taking pictures on my phone.  Thanks again for the visit, Alyse & Zach!

Vegas

This past weekend we enjoyed a little getaway in Vegas with our good friends, Lacey & Ryan.  Lacey was my roommate in college and we have stayed good friends ever since.  Luckily our husbands get along too!  We met up in Vegas and stayed at the Cancun Resort.  It is officially my new favorite place to stay in Vegas!  It is awesome!  The best part is no smoky filled casino!  It is a much more family friendly atmosphere.  It is not right on the strip, just a couple of miles south, which is fine by me!  I liked being in a quieter part of town.

At the Cancun!  The pool was amazing.  On the other side of that pyramid are water slides!

We got there Friday and spent the afternoon swimming.  That evening we went to an outdoor mall called Town Square where we ate at Claim Jumper (which was SO good) and then got my favorite frozen yogurt ever, Yogurtland!  I like it so much I even looked up how much it would cost to franchise one, just so I could have it in St. George.  Unfortunately my frozen yogurt shop owning dreams will have to wait for now.

Yogurtland! Seriously, the best!

Saturday morning we hit the Outlets and then headed to the Strip for some exploring.  Lacey had never really been there, so we had fun showing her around.

First stop: NY NY, just so Dan could play the giant claw game at their arcade.  Didn't win anything this time!

Next headed to Aria/Crystals where they have these cool twister things in the floor. 

Also at the Crystals, large pillars made of ice (and lots of shops we will probably never shop at)!

Lacey & me on the awesome Crystals stair case.  This mall has some of the  neatest architecture!

Flower garden @ the Crystals (the large flower is not real, fyi).

We then made the guys take a manly picture together by this dragon.

We of course couldn't miss the Bellagio fountains!

Love these gardens at the Bellagio.

Found this picture at the Bellagio.  It is made of flowers!

After Bellagio we made a stop at the m&m factory and then headed home to St. George where we played games and visited our favorite Mexican Restaurant.  We had such a blast with Lacey & Ryan and look forward to many more future trips w/ them!

The Deceuster Bed & Breakfast :)

I feel so bad, last week my in laws were here and I didn't take any pictures!  We had fun with them though and were excited they came to visit.  I think their favorite part of St. George was Nielsen's Frozen Custard, we went there both nights they were here!  We also drove them around and showed them the sites b/c they've never really been to St. George.  We also took them to see where our home is going to be built and we enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant here that looks out over a golf course.  We are happy they came and are looking forward to their next visit (in September where they will get to stay in our new home!)

Also last week my old roommate, Lacey, & her fiance, Ryan, came to visit (not the same days as my in laws though).  Luckily with them I did remember to take pictures.  We did a lot of things with them we had never done with our guests before, so that was fun.  It's always fun checking out new things!  First off, they asked us if we played tennis and I said no!  I think I've maybe played once.  So we went and played tennis at the park by our future house and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!  I am not athletic, but i really liked it!  It made me want to go out and buy some rackets.  Luckily when we get into our new house the tennis courts will be just down the street.  I'm also hoping we can find some friends to play doubles with around here.  Dan is an excellent teammate (he is athletic) and he probably hit about 75% of our balls.  I think that's why I liked playing, we actually won occasionally b/c my team was good!  haha. 

We also went swimming, which Ryan was really excited about.  Got some In-N-Out for lunch.  And checked out the St. George Art Festival, which was a lot cooler than I thought it would be.  It made me want to buy artwork for our future home.  But I figured I would wait to buy next year when we actually have the house. 

@ the Art Festival

Engagement photo?  No... just the art festival :)

Then we climbed this awesome spot in St. George that looks over the whole city.  It was mine & Lacey's kind of hike, it only took us about 3 minutes to get to the top! 

Their little cave!

We made it to the top!

High above St. George

Our view.... so picturesque!

That night we came home and dyed easter eggs & watched a movie.  Both Lacey & Ryan feel asleep.  We definitely wore them out! 

Easter egg time!

I feel like I look so tired in this photo, probably because i was!  But hey... we look kinda tan :) haha... and it's only April!

After church (which by the way, Dan played the special musical # in Sacrament) we exchanged easter baskets.  Lacey & I then made an easter dinner for the 4 of us.  It was a lot of fun to have them here for easter.

We had a great time & we definitely convinced them to move here :).  Ryan told us once he finishes getting his MBA (in 2 years) they are moving here!  haha... let's hope they really do!  They just couldn't get over how perfect the weather was!

We are so excited for them and are looking forward to their wedding in June.  They are an awesome couple!  They made me laugh b/c they usually hang out w/ single people or people who are just dating so the whole time they would tell us "it's so fun hanging out with you guys and seeing what married life is really like!"  Let's hope we were a good example :).  

wedding weekend

This past weekend we went up to northern utah for my friend's wedding. I have known my friend Amanda since 1st grade! We go way back. It was so much fun seeing all of my friends from growing up. I love when we all get together. Amanda is the last to get married and luckily all of our husbands get along too! It is fabulous. Now that we are all married we are already planning a couples trip for this summer.

Here we all are with Amanda and Joe. Amanda looked gorgeous and i loved her dress. The only person missing is Mallory's husband Matt (she is the one sitting next to the groom). Poor Mal!

Here are the girls (minus the bride). I love these girls! We took lots of pictures to keep ourselves entertained while waiting for Amanda & Joe to come out of the temple. It was about 50 degrees that day and all of my friends thought it was warm! I was freezing! haha... i'm amazed at how quickly my body has adjusted to st. george weather. 50 is cold!

After the wedding Dan and I went and had lunch with my dad and my sister at the Church Office Building. It was so much fun because when I worked in SLC i would eat lunch with my dad almost every day. It was fun to be able to do it again. Now my sister and her husband work in SLC so they are the ones who get to eat lunch with my dad.

After lunch we took my grandpa balloons for his birthday. I think he liked them :). We also went to the gateway to see the movie Rango (not all that great... and definitely not great for kids). While at the gateway we ended up buying Dan lots of clothes! Which was fun b/c usually the stuff we buy is for me. It was nice to turn the tables :). We also went to the reception that night and had more fun chatting w/ friends, dancing and eating.

On Saturday we hung out w/ my family. While my brother and his wife were out house hunting Dan and I took care of their little boy, Chase. He was our little buddy all day and we had lots of fun with him! Let's just say I love 3 year olds! They are always so cute and funny. We took him to see his cousins and we all went to the park.

Here are my cute 3 year old nephews. They always make me laugh! I love them!

On Sunday we went to our old ward in Springville & saw a lot of our old friends. Then we made our way back to St. George. It was a fun weekend! We were happy we got to see so many of our friends and family. Also this past weekend my best college friend, Melissa, got engaged. That means another wedding some time in May or June for us to attend. Lots of weddings this year!

Party!

A few weeks ago we got together w/ some of my best high school friends and had a party! None of them had ever been to our house, so we thought we'd invite them all over. It was so much fun! Most of them live up in Davis County (or Logan), but they love me so they all still made the drive :). Dan likes when they come over too b/c we are all married/seriously dating someone, so the guys can be friends too. It's fabulous! I always love seeing these girls b/c they are the type of friends that even if you haven't seen each other for months, it feels like no time has passed.

Here's a few pics from the occasion...

First off, Matt, Mallory, Miquette and Jon all enjoying the snuggie (which my father in law got for me)! Who doesn't love the snuggie?

Danny, Amanda, Marissa & Joe. Let me explain... Danny & Marissa are married. Amanda & Joe are dating. This pic may be awkward, but I like it! haha.

And the hosts!

We ate, played games, watched youtube videos (not my idea) and laughed til we cried (ok mostly Amanda & me). So much fun!

p.s... i would also like to mention that i really like my new blog background! :) i love fall and anything fall-ish.

Quadruple Date

Last weekend we had so much fun, we went on a quadruple date with three of my best friends! The four of us met 5 years ago as freshman roommates and have been best friends ever since. I lived with two of them my whole college career until I got married. I even give one of them, Melissa, partial credit for me marrying Dan. She was the one who told me I should date him :). Glad I took her advice! Anyway, 2 of them went on missions and now we are all back in the Provo area. We try to get together occasionally and Dan is happy because now all 3 of them have boyfriends, so he has some other men to talk to. Before it was just Dan and the 4 girls! haha. I think he still had fun.

Anyway, last weekend we got together and went bowling! Dan and I haven't been in forever, which was definitely reflected in our scores :). We did the scoring by couples, I can't remember the exact scores, but here are our places...

In 4th place....

Leilani & Kofi! In the beginning Kofi was trying to perfect his curve, so most of his balls went in the gutter. However, when he decided to play for real towards the end of the game I'm pretty sure he got a strike/spare every time! If had done that the whole game I have a feeling they wouldn't be in 4th place right now.

3rd place...
Us! Definitely not our best game of bowling ever. But that's ok, we still had fun!

2nd Place....
Lacey & Ryan! I think they only lost by a few points too. Which they were then teased by the winners the rest of the night.

And in 1st Place...

Melissa & Greg! I'm pretty sure it was because of the headbands/sweatbands. Good job, guys!

Dan, however, did win the high score on the basketball game in the arcade. He got tons of tickets and we were able to buy skittles for everyone. Go, Dan!

Then we went to Cold Stone. So good! The girls had a great time talking about our old roommate days and the boys... I think they had fun :). I hope so because there will be many more quadruple dates in the future!