Introducing...

Henry Craig Fryer

Born 10.7.10

7:11 am

8 lbs 6 oz

20 3/4 inches

My first nephew (On my family's side). I can't wait to meet him in a few weeks!

I Wanna Quit the Gym!

Well, we finally did it. We are now proud members of Gold's Gym. Brandt and I have been thinking about joining a gym for awhile now, but never wanted to make the commitment. Exercise and staying healthy is important to us, but let's face it, we're lazy. We prefer the couch and a Redbox as opposed to sweatin' it out on the treadmill. However, age and high metabolisms will not always be on our side. We figure if we want to keep these sexy bodies we already have (haha, you laughed huh?) then we better start taking care of them. 

I've been going to Zumba classes a couple of times a week with some girls from work for the past couple of months and loving it! Has anyone else tried Zumba? It's not necessarily the best workout in the world, but tons of fun.  But we figured for the price we're putting out to go to Zumba every month, we could join a gym and go to as many classes as we want. Hence, we had reps come to the office and discuss a membership. And I think we got a pretty sweet deal. I was able to talk them into five bucks off the monthly fee. I was pretty excited - I love a good deal. Brandt could have cared less - he hates when I haggle.

So there you have it. Next time you see us, it's ok if you don't recognize us. We'll be super hot. Joining a gym always reminds me of that episode of Friends where Chandler is a member of a gym, but never goes and can't get out of his contract, so Ross goes with him to help him out. Click on the picture below and it will take you to the two-minute video on YouTube. Watch it - you will laugh.

(image from here)

A Fortunate Life

****

A Fortunate Life

By A.B. Facey

I got the recommendation to read this book from this blog, and, as I was looking for a new book to read, decided to give this one a go. It was published in Australia in 1981, so I had to purchase a used copy on Amazon. Lucky for me, the book I picked must have sat on a shelf for the past 30 years because it looks nearly brand new! Although it kind of makes me sad that it sat on the shelf without being read, because it is a great book.

This is the autobiography of A.B. Facey, a man born in the late 1800's in Western Australia. This is his life story, and my goodness he had an interesting life! He grew up in poverty and worked extremely hard just to be able to survive. He didn't really have a "normal" childhood as you and I would define it, but was forced to grow up extremely quickly, going out to work at the age of nine. I am amazed that after all of the hardships he faced throughout his life, in the end, he could still say "I have lived a very good life, it has been very rich and full. I have been very fortunate and I am thrilled by it when I look back."

I love books that make you think - but not too hard - I don't like to think too hard :) As I've been reading this over the last couple of weeks I've been reflecting on my own life.  Compared to Mr. Facey, my life has been a breeze! I am concluding that my life has also been pretty fortunate thus far. I had a great childhood and I feel that I am continually being blessed with goodness in my life. Good husband, good friends, good family, good job, good health, and the list goes on. Things aren't always easy, this life wasn't meant to be easy; we're supposed to experience challenges, and I think it's through experiencing hardship and trials that we learn to really be grateful for the good things that we do have. As I've been reading and reflecting I've felt so much gratitude towards my Heavenly Father for the many blessings He has given me throughout my life. I am so blessed.

Give this book a try. You won't be disappointed. It is so uplifting and inspiring, I know you'll love it!

Summer Potpourri

Labor Day has come and gone and with it comes the end of summer. I thought I'd post about all the random things we've been up to. I did this last summer and it seems like the easiest way to recap everything that's been going on. This summer has been AMAZING. No joke, one of the best summers I can remember. It's the first time that I haven't felt stressed in a long time: no stress of starting school in the fall, no stress of looking for work, etc. Just happy and free to do whatever. My goal was to do something every weekend of the summer. It didn't have to be anything huge, just something to get us out of the house. And, though it was EXHAUSTING, I'm happy to report that we accomplished that goal. Here's a look at what we've done (not necessarily in chronological order, because that hurts my head too much):

We started off the summer in VEGAS! (read about that here, here, and here).

Next came four weekends of hanging out with my family in both Burley and Utah. (Read all about it here, here, here, and finally here). 

I got BRACES. Yep, that's right. As if I don't look enough like a 14-year-old right? Because of circumstances at the time, I didn't get the opportunity to have braces when I should have, and because of my profession, it was important to me to get my teeth fixed. Though I must say, that was a difficult check to write! It's kind of funny how some of my patients at work will look at me funny, and I know they're trying to figure out if I'm old enough to be doing what I'm doing. And Dr. J called me "kiddo" for the first couple of months that I had them on. Oh well. So far they haven't been too bad. Eighteen months (give or take) of torture are going to fly by...

Brandt's sister Karman and her family came for a visit the last weekend in July. We enjoyed hanging out with them for a couple of days. We met up with them on Friday after work and went to Indian Hot Springs for a dip in the pool. Saturday we just hung out, Brandt and Sheena put together a treasure hunt for all the kids, built a fire, etc. Sunday was church, Sunday dinner, and more hanging out before we had to head home. It was lots of fun. We wish we got to see the Petersen's more often...Missouri is too far away!

Two of our best friends from high school got married this summer, so we had the privilege of attending both of their weddings. Aaron married his sweetheart, Ali, in the Bountiful temple and Kimmy married her prince charming, Clayton, in the Salt Lake City temple. It was great to be there on their special days.

We had so much fun seeing some of our high school friends at the weddings and receptions that we thought it would be great to get everyone together just to hang out and get to know their spouses a bit better. So in August we got together for a BBQ at Tiff's parent's house. Everyone was there except Carla, Abram, and Aaron & Ali (we missed you guys!) It was great to see everyone. That night we also got to see our good friends, the Moulton's, for a bit and they showed us around their new house - can't wait to see the finished product!

We ended up with two Saturdays for the whole summer where we didn't have anything specific to attend (Crazy, I know). We used those days to go hiking. Now don't read this and think that we are amazingly active people, because that is a bold-faced lie. (Remember this post?) However, we do like to get outside and in the fresh air. We're all about the easy hikes. I wish I had a knack for photography because these pics just don't seem to capture how pretty it is in this area. On one of the hikes, Brandt lost his fishing rod as we were hiking through the rough terrain trying to find the fishing "hot spot". Very convenient, if you ask me, since that meant he got to buy the bigger and better (aka more expensive) rod he's been wanting for the last few years. Yes, very convenient babe.

Brandt and I LOVE movies, but we don't go OUT to a lot of movies. A movie has to have rave reviews for us to shell out twenty bucks; we'd much rather spend that money on eating out and watching a Redbox at home. Someday we'll upgrade to Netflix.  Here's a quick review of the movies we went to this summer:

"Killers" - went to see this one as something to do for our anniversary. Terrible. Absolutely terrible. One perk: Ashton Kutcher is HOT!

"Eclipse!" - (I always post Eclipse! with an exclamation point even though it's not supposed to have one... oh well...!!!!) LOVE IT!! And I love Jacob! I was sad they left out the part where Edward rips Jacob out of the sleeping bag once Bella says she's too warm (I laughed so hard). These movies are just so much fun. Even though there is absolutely NO comparison to the books, it's fun to get excited about a movie.

"Toy Story 3" - we were supposed to see this with Katelyn when she came to visit in June, but the boogers wouldn't wait ONE DAY for us to get there and go with them. Grrrrrrrr...Anywho, the movie was really good! There was so much hype about it that I think we both expected more, but it was still good. Definitely not the best of the Toy Story's like some people were saying, but still good.

"Inception" - we heard about this one on the news - they were saying how popular it was and how people were seeing it again and again to try and figure it out. So Brandt and I decided to see what all the hype was about. GOOD movie! Such a crazy idea, the writer was a genius. I love Leonardo Dicaprio - he's so good and I wish more of his movies weren't rated-R.

Movies to look forward to: Breaking Dawn! (I can't help it with the exclamation :), Harry Potter 7!!, and Pirates! (exclamation included for Brandt's sake).
 

We had some visitors come and stay with us here and there throughout the summer which was fun. Linds and Craig came for one night so the boys could go fishing, Brandt's parents came for one night so we could go to his cousin Carson's mission farewell up in Rigby, and my mom and Syd came for a couple of days to go school shopping (which I must say was not pretty on my pocketbook - I had to go buy more hangers to take care of all my loot - thanks girls!) I didn't take any pics while anyone was here, but thanks for coming! It was fun having people come and visit.

Oh, and we can't forget the good ol' Cassia County Fair and Rodeo. Brandt and I weren't going to drive to Burley AGAIN just for the fair, but his sister Allison and her family came for a visit, plus my mom wanted us to go to the rodeo with her, so we decided to drive down for Friday and Saturday. We went to the rodeo with my family Friday night which was fun and hung out with Brandt's family at the fair on Saturday.

And FINALLY, we finished off the summer with a fun trip over Labor Day weekend to Utah to see Brandt's nephew Kimball get baptized (Congrats Kimball!) We figured since we drove all that way we might as well make a weekend trip out of it, so we stayed in a condo in Park City with Brandt's parents and Sheena & Kyle. We went to the Hogle Zoo on Saturday afternoon and the Soldier Hollow Classic Sheepdog International Championship  on Sunday after church. That was so much fun! Definitely not something we would normally do on our own, but I'm glad we went. On Monday we stopped at the outlet stores for a few hours before heading home.

And that's it! Pat yourself on the back if you made it through this entire post. It was definitely a fun and BUSY summer. I totaled it up and out of 15 weekends we made one trip to Vegas, seven trips to Burley, and four trips to Utah. As fun as it was though, I think we're both ready for things to settle down. Here's to a  great summer and a slightly less hectic fall!

I am a HUGE fan...

...of The Hunger Games Trilogy! I bought the first two books back in February and just got around to reading them, partly because I was reading other things and partly because I wanted to wait until the third book came out so I wouldn't have to wait for it if I ended up liking them. Good move on my part, because I had a hard time putting these books down! Seriously, I haven't had this much fun reading since probably Twilight.

The story is based at some point in the future after our country has been destroyed by war. Out of the ashes, a new country erupts: Panem. As a reminder to the citizens of Panem not to rebel, each year they hold The Hunger Games, where one boy and one girl from each district must compete to the death. This is the story of Katniss Everdeen's journey through The Hunger Games. I know, it sounds really weird. And violent. And barbaric. That's another reason I held off reading them for so long. But Collins is a master story-teller. She presents the story in such a way that you see very little of the gore and violence of the plot; you see compassion, love, sacrifice, courage, honor, etc.

These novels are as close to perfect as you can get. Not once did I get bored; the plot moves along smoothly. I hope they do a good job with the movie, because it could be great. One suggestion I do have is that you try to slow down when you read. This trilogy will make you think, so rather than rushing through them, take time to process everything. You get more out of it when you slow down. Love, LOVE, LOVE Hunger Games!!! Go read them - you will not be disappointed!

Next: A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey

Linds and Kate Come to Play: Part IV

Weekend #4: July 1-4
(The Grand Finale)

Sadly, this was our last weekend together. But we made it count! Craig heard about all the fun we were having without him, so he decided to join us for this last weekend. He and Lindsay came up to Idaho Falls on Wednesday night so that the boys could go fly fishing. They had a good time; somehow Craig took a dunk in the river at some point (not sure how it happened, but according to Brandt is was very funny). I had to work on Thursday, so Lindsay went shopping and then we headed home to Bur-town for an extended Fourth of July weekend, where we immediately went to the theatre and got in line for "ECLIPSE!" And, yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it (more to come on that later). Here are some pics from the rest of the weekend.

1. Thursday night. Kate eyeing Syd's ice cream (she has an appetite for other people's food); Syd doesn't look too thrilled.
2. Sammy. I have to snap pictures of him when he's not looking; otherwise he pulls some stupid face.
3. On Friday we planned on going to Nat-Soo-Pah, but the weather wasn't cooperating, so we went bowling again. Good job Linds!
4. Me, momma, and Lindsay.
5. Sammy with his Erkel pants.
6. Ta-da! Me in all my glory.
7. Kate in all her glory.
8. Sammy is a weirdee. You know those balls people put on their car antennas? Well, Sammy decided to take the head off a Barbie doll and use it as our antenna. It was pretty funny watching her hair flying in the breeze, then watching her fly off the antenna and onto the highway. Don't worry, we went back and retrieved her off the road and reattached her to the rest of her body. Thank goodness nobody ran her over. She was a brave soul.
9. Brandt and Craig. Friday night we went to the Hellewell family reunion with all of my mom's cousins. We roasted hot dogs and then listened to my Great-Uncle George tell family stories.
10. Syd and Jill.
11. Zach, Brayden, Sam, Wendell listening to the stories.
12. Someone thought it would be funny to have someone dress up in a gorilla outfit for the kids. Brynnlie and Katelyn were not impressed.

13. This is one of my favorite pics. Linds and Kate at Blaine & Lora's house Saturday night (somehow this pic got out of order of the rest, but I'm too lazy to fix it).
14. Saturday was Round 2 of the Hellewell reunion. We went to a park over in Heyburn for lunch, games, and storytime. This is a bunch of my family playing Tug of War (that's a funny phrase - Tug of War - looks funny doesn't it?).
15. Storytime. Anyone who wanted to could get up and tell a story about another family member and then everyone else tried to guess who the story was about.
16. Kalan feeding Jill pudding in a race.
17. Brandt playing volleyball with the rest of my family. He fits right in.
18. Craig is a pretty good baller.
19. Zach trying to save it in the net.
20. Nice block Brandt!
21. My cute momma.
22. After volleyball came football.
23. And after football came water volleyball (back at Blaine and Lora's).
24. Good serving Wendell!

25. Whoa Sarah! What happened?! (Another one of my favorite pics). Blaine makes awesome Dutch Oven chicken and potatoes. Sarah concurs.
26. Brandt and his humungo pile of birthday cakes (yes, cakes-that is plural) and ice cream. Oink.
27. Kalan and Jill watching some fireworks that Ron brought. Thanks Ron!
28. Syd and Nicole - the birthday girl!
29. And now we are on to Sunday (Fourth of July!); Sunday consisted of church in the morning followed by dinner and hanging out at our house. Here's me and Kate after church.
30. I LOVE my family!
31. The Girls.
32. The Boys.
33. I took Kate out to feed apples to the horse. She was too scared to let him eat them out of her hand, so she'd drop them right in front of him for him to grab.
**Ok, I must insert a couple funny stories about Kate - I have the first one on video but wasn't sure if Linds would appreciate me posting it since it involves her daughter being nude (but note to self: go look up the video! HILARIOUS!) Anywho, Kate was sitting on Brandt's lap and I was filming while Brandt asked her questions (are you excited to go home, how are you getting home, etc.) she was being really cute and answering all of his questions, but apparently she was getting bored. I asked her who her favorite uncle was and she says "LOOK!" We look down and she had pulled her panties down without us realizing it and hiked her bum up so it was inches from Brandt's face. It was soooooooooo funny!! He hurried and pushed her off his lap and she laughed hysterically. Brandt got a lot of that girl in a short amount of time - not very long after that (probably 15 minutes later), she peed her pants while Brandt was helping her wash her hands (which I think was the only time she had an accident the entire time she was here; must have been the warm water :) And since Linds and Craig weren't home, Brandt had the privilege of cleaning it up! So funny.
34. Lindsay chopped off Jenny's hair!! I love it, so cute :)
35. This woman LOVES being a grandma.
36. That night Brandt and I went to the Burley Golf Course to watch the fireworks. Good show.

And I just have one video from the weekend to post. The others were a bit longer, so this will suffice; it's Blaine's reaction to seeing Jenny's new 'do for the first time (he was quite fond of her long hair).

"That Your Hair?!"



As you can see we had a great time while Lindsay was here. Lots of late nights, but oh so much fun! Come and play again soon!!

Linds and Kate Come to Play: Part III

Weekend #3: June 25-27

My mom had a reunion with her brothers and sisters in Island Park this weekend and Sam had to work, so it was just Linds & Kate, Me & Brandt, Zach, and Syd left at home to party.



1. On Saturday we went bowling. I'm not very good.
2. Brandt isn't very good either. :)
3. "I'm on a horse."
4. Kate stealing Brandt's pie.
5. "Brandt doesn't share food!"
6. Getting ready for a walk.
7. Rex taking Kate for a walk.
8. Kate and Brandt.
9. Walking along the canal.
10. Kate eyeing the prize.
11. Brandt finally giving in.
12. This was funny - Rex just went over and plopped himself right on top of Brandt.

And again, here are some funny videos from the weekend. They're probably "had to be there" funny, but I figured my mom would appreciate seeing them since she missed out on all the fun - so I'm posting these mostly for her.

"Kate Dancing at the Bowling Alley"



"Waiting for the Beep"
This was so funny - for awhile Kate thought that the light and buzzer were the signal you had to wait for before you could bowl. Little did she know it actually meant she was fouling every single time!



"Kate Helping Brandt Play Scattergories"




"Rex Walking Kate"