A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

I love four-day weekends! They're the best. Brandt and I were able to spend a lot of time with the fam in Burley. Our weekend was jam-packed. We: 

• Watched Zach graduate from High School
• Took Rex for lots of walks
• Watched "Emperor's New Groove" (classic movie - tons of good movie quotes)
• Played Halo (not so fun for me, but the boys enjoyed it), 
• Went to the new "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie (LOVED it!)
• Got together with the extended family to play volleyball at the church, Dominoes, and Guesstures
• Put flowers on the graves
• And ate more sweets in four days than I have this entire year. Honestly, I'm surprised I'm not a full-blown diabetic after this weekend. 

We had a great time. Here are some pics:

Congrats Zach! I can't believe my baby brother is all grown up and leaving the nest. It makes me feel old. I don't like feeling old. Anywho, at the beginning of the graduation, their class performed a "flash mob" routine to Black Eyed Peas' "I've got a Feeling". It was the coolest thing ever! Everyone was so surprised; when the song started playing I thought it was a mix-up with the sound system. Then a couple of students started dancing; I figured they were just being silly. And then the WHOLE class got up and started dancing. It was really cool.

Brandt and I took Rex for lots of walks while we were there. It was a matter of life and death. This dog is FAT. And I mean F.A.T. He is a bear. My mom took him to the vet last week thinking that maybe he had a thyroid problem, but nope, he's just fat. 140.5 pounds to be exact.  The vet said he was the biggest lab he's ever seen.  He is now on a strict diet and exercise plan in hopes to lose 25-40 pounds. So here is a 'before' shot - and hopefully in a few months we can share a successful 'after' shot. Good luck Rex!!

We went to the cemetery on Sunday this year. For some reason, we always have to take a picture with the Jesus statue - one of those weird family things I guess. I remember as a kid being so excited to go see Jesus; it was the highlight of going to the cemetery on Memorial Day every year. We would patiently wait while our parents put flowers on the graves and then we would all walk to the other side of the cemetery just so we could see Jesus. 

It was a great weekend and we can't wait for the next family get-together.

Grandma Hines

Grandma Hines recently passed away. Just as it was when Grandpa Manning passed away, we are sad but feel joy in knowing she is happy and in a much greater place. She had been suffering with physical and mental health problems and, stubborn woman that she was, she tried to cut down a tree limb in the yard and it knocked her over, breaking her hip. After about a week in the hospital, she was able to move on from this life and into the next. She will be missed but we are glad she can be  with her Heavenly Father again as well as reunited with Grandpa Hines, who we lost about twenty years ago.

It was nice to see most of the family, many of whom we have not seen in a few years.

Grandma was a wonderful woman and we have many fond memories of spending time with her. One of the best words to describe her would be spunky, but she was also very sweet, kind, and loving. We had a tradition of sending each other Christmas cards that were, well, less than sweet, but always full of good humor and sarcasm. Another great memory was playing games with her; she would get particularly fired up when playing "Pit" and on more than one occasion she would call you by something other than your name, usually a four letter word, especially when you'd slip her the bear right at the end. I enjoyed a comment made at her funeral by my Uncle Jerry; he said she had a love for sweets and passed this on to her four boys. She had a talent for making delicious pies from scratch. I can say with certainty that this tradition, the eating of sweets - not necessarily the making of them, continues in our family today. Until I met Dani, I never knew it was wrong to eat the whole batch of cookies the same night you made them.

Grandma Hines was an amazing woman and a great grandmother. Thank you for all that you did and the joy you brought into our lives. We love you and will miss you.

Palisades...Take Two

Idaho Falls has had the worst spring ever. It has been so stinkin' cold. I've been thinking about this video I took of Kate when she came to visit last summer:

My sentiments exactly Kate. I want to go outside!! I want to get some sun! I want to be warm, and maybe get a mild sunburn. Is that so much to ask for? I think not.

Well, this past weekend we FINALLY saw the sun for the first time in months. And the weather was gorgeous. Brandt and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to enjoy it so we decided to go on a hike to Palisades Creek. This was our second time hiking Palisades - do you remember how the first hike went down? Click here for a reminder.

But this time we were optimistic that our weather would hold. It was about 68 degrees with no moisture of any kind on the forecast. It was going to be a beautiful day. So we packed ourselves a lunch and headed out. This time our goal was to make it all the way to the lower lake (about four miles) before heading back.

It was a beautiful day. I think I may have been suffering with a mild case of seasonal depression the last few months; just being outside and getting some fresh air was doing wonders for my spirit. For the most part the trail was dry, but there were a few patches of mud and yuck, plus some areas where you had to dodge the snow (which was crazy since it was so warm that day). We were making good time and estimated that we were probably within a half-mile of the lake when the snow suddenly got much worse. For a long stretch the snow was a few feet deep, with no way to dodge around it as we had been doing previously. We figured if we were this close, we might as well trek through it (the snow-covered stretch in front of us was only about 20-30 feet long) and hopefully that would be the only problem we would have. So we jogged through it, filling our sandals with snow in the process, so much snow in fact that it cut my feet to pieces, giving me tons of blisters in the process. We had to take our shoes off and clean out all the snow and give our feet a chance to warm up. At this point I started to really question whether or not it was worth it to make it to the lake. But we had already sacrificed so much to make it that far, we might as well keep going. So we put our sandals back on and trudged on....until we rounded the next bend and saw this:

And we decided the lake probably isn't that cool anyways. We turned around and started our 3 1/2 mile hike back to the car. Darn that snow! We found the same big, flat rock from last time and ate our lunch. I was slightly disappointed we didn't make it to the lake for the second time in a row, and upset that our little jaunt through the snow gave me about ten blisters total (and that's not an exaggeration - Brandt can attest to it), but all things considered it was still a great day. It was so great just being out in the sun. And maybe next time we'll actually make it all the way. Third time's a charm right?

Wicked Weekend

This past weekend was pretty packed. We tried to divide our time evenly between our families so we could spend some time with both of our moms. On Friday we drove down to Burley and stayed with my family for the night.  We had a great time hanging out and playing games. Zach had just gotten his wisdom teeth pulled that morning so we had a great time laughing at his expense at all of the funny things he said and did while under conscious sedation. My favorite: my mom had to help him go to the bathroom (clarification: she didn't actually have to "help" him go, just get him to the right room and point him towards the bowl - although I had a great time trying to convince Zach she had to do more than that :) So she points him in the right direction and turns her back on him to give him some privacy, but she doesn't hear anything, so they proceed to have the following conversation:

    
                             Mom: "Zach, what are you doing?"
                             Zach: "I don't know."
                             Mom: "You're supposed to be going to the bathroom."
                             Zach: "I can't."
                             Mom: "Why not?"
                             Zach: "There's too many of them."

Not sure if he meant too many toilets or too many wee wees. Either way I laughed.

Zach icing his face

The next day, Brandt and I drove up to Boise to see "Wicked." We had heard so much hype about this play and I've been wanting to see it for a long time, so I was excited to hear they were coming to Boise. My cousin got us the tickets months ago and we weren't sure how good our seats were, but turns out they were awesome! We absolutely loved it. No comparison whatsoever to the book. The songs were fun, the actors were great, set design was amazing, etc. etc. I got chills when Elphaba  (aka the Wicked Witch of the West) sang "Defying Gravity." Other plays we've been to have always gotten a standing ovation when the lead roles come out and take their bows; usually I think they deserve it, but every now and then I think it's just a courteous thing audiences have adapted. But with Wicked, we were all on our feet as soon as the very first actors came out and absolutely roaring when Elphaba and Glinda came out. It was amazing. I would highly recommend it. 

After the play, we grabbed dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Sooooo good! Although, I must say we were a bit disappointed in the portion size of the cheesecake. Not to say that we needed any more food in our bellies, but when you pay six bucks per slice, you would expect them to be pretty hefty slices. Not so much. But it was still good. And Boise was beautiful! The trees were all in bloom, the weather was perfect. Brandt and I wondered what the heck we're doing in Idaho Falls.

Saturday night we headed back to Burley to spend some time with Brandt's family. We met them at the hospital so we could spend some time with Grandma Hines. She broke her hip last week while trying to cut down a limb from one of her trees and hasn't been recovering very well. We suspect she won't live much longer. I'm not for sure she knew who we were, but it was good to spend some time by her side. She even smiled for us a couple of times.

Sunday (Mother's Day) was pretty low key. Brandt's parents spent most of the day at the hospital, so we hung out with Sheena and Kyle and played a quick game of "Settler's of Catan" before heading home. It was a busy weekend, but so much fun. It was nice to get out of town for a couple of days, visit with our families, and go on a fun date.

Chuck

Apparently, I have been living under a rock. Before this weekend, I had never heard of Chuck Norris Facts. Have you?! They're hilarious. We were playing a card game with my family when all of a sudden my brothers started telling us a bunch of Chuck Norris jokes. I laughed so hard. I thought they were so funny I had to look up some more today. Here are some of my favorites. 

1. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits. 
2. Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris. 
3. There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live. 
4. Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants. 
5. When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
6. If you opened a can of whoop-ass, Chuck Norris would jump out.
7. Chuck Norris died 20 years ago, Death just hasn't built up the courage to tell him yet. 
8. Chuck Norris once urinated in a semi truck's gas tank as a joke....that truck is now known as Optimus Prime. 
9. Harry Potter didn't really kill Voldemort. Chuck Norris did.  
10. Death once had a near-Chuck Norris experience. 
    
11. Chuck Norris will never have a heart attack. His heart isn't nearly foolish enough to attack him. 
12. Chuck Norris once got bit by a rattle snake. After three days of pain and agony the rattle snake died.  
13. Chuck Norris doesn't churn butter. He roundhouse kicks the cow and the butter just comes out.
14. Chuck Norris once kicked a horse in the chin. Its decendants are known today as giraffes.
15. There used to be a street named after Chuck Norris, but it was changed because nobody crosses Chuck Norris and lives. 
16. Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter.
17. Chuck Norris doesn't get sunburned. Because the sun wouldn't dare.
18.  Fear of spiders is called arachnophobia; fear of tight spaces is called claustrophobia; fear of Chuck Norris is called Logic.
19. Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch. HE decides what time it is.
20. Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs. 

HIL.ARIOUS. Chuck Norris is the man! And just because I felt like reminiscing, I looked up the theme song to Walker, Texas Ranger. I grew up watching this show (anybody else?) and hearing this song reminded me of all those times getting together with my extended family on weekends, hanging out, watching TV, and eating popcorn while the adults played Dominoes. Ahhhh, good times.
 

Walk MS

On Saturday morning, Brandt and I drove down to Salt Lake City to participate in Walk MS Utah, a fundraiser sponsored by the National MS Society to help raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis research.  One of our best friends lost his father to this disease six years ago and put together a team in his honor.

Craig Jones was one of the kindest, most genuine people I've ever known. He was my bishop as a kid and I remember how important he made everyone around him feel. Even as a kid, I felt like I was important to him. It didn't matter who you were, what your status in the church or community was, he was friends with everybody. I have great memories from my childhood of hanging out with the Jones' and other family friends and going on camping trips with them in the summer. I think, in a lot of ways, Craig was influential in my dad's activity in the church during that time. One of the comments made by a good friend speaking at his funeral has really stuck with me - he said that Craig never had time for TV, books, movies, etc. because he preferred to spend his time with people. He fought MS for ten years before the disease finally took him. And even during that time, he continued to be such an example to me and everyone around him. He was always so positive and did his best to continue living life to its fullest even though his body was deteriorating. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity of knowing such a great man. It was great to participate in this event in honor of him.

Go Craig's Crew!

We had about 55 people on our team. It was so much fun to get together with so many of our good friends that we haven't seen in quite awhile.

Some of our besties from left to right: Abram (our ring leader for the day), Whit Ro., Cade, Tom, Brandt, Whit B., Me, Ali, and Aaron

 

 

 

Abram designed our shirts, which I thought were perfect since Craig was in construction.  We met at the Gateway Mall and then proceeded on a three-mile walk around downtown Salt Lake. I think the funnest part for us was just walking with our friends and catching up with what everyone has been up to. We got lucky with the weather; we had heard there was a high probability it would snow, but it held off until we were done walking which was great.

Afterwards we grabbed some lunch with our besties and then walked around the mall a bit before heading home. It was such a great day. I'm so glad we were able to make it and spend time with such good people.  Brandt and I both feel pretty lucky to have been blessed with such great friends.

On a side-note, after we came out of the restaurant, we saw they were doing a fashion show at the Lucky Brand store. And guess who was there?!

Tim Gunn!

We stopped and listened to his thoughts on the results of this last season of Project Runway (apparently he wanted Mondo to win?).  Doesn't he look dashing? I bet he thought we were pretty fashionable in our sexy orange T-shirts (although Brandt says he saw him cringe when he looked our way).

That Sly Easter Bunny

Brandt and I don't really get into the commercial side of Easter. If we go home for the holiday, our families always put Easter baskets together for us and we figure that's good enough. This year, since we weren't going home I thought it would be fun to surprise Brandt and put together a little somethin' somethin' for him. He loves candy (treats of any kind, really) but we rarely buy any, so I thought this would be a fun surprise. Little did I know how difficult it would be to pull off. I had to jump several hurdles to get this accomplished:

 Hurdle #1: I go to work...then come home. That's my life. If I ever go anywhere else, Brandt comes too. And Brandt knows my work schedule well enough that I didn't know how I was going to go to the store without him knowing it (I couldn't lie and say I was going to get, say, hairspray, because he would beg to come along - see Hurdle #2 below). Well, Tuesday morning, I went to work, saw ONE patient at 8:00, and the rest of my morning patients canceled on me. No joke. It was ridiculous. So I was done by 9:00. But it ended up working in my favor because I was able to get to Target and buy my goodies while Brandt thought I was at work.

Hurdle #2: Brandt rarely leaves the house. It's kind of sad, really.  He goes to school online and doesn't start his summer job for another couple of weeks. And he's always there waiting for me in the living room when I get home from work. So how could I get my bag of goodies into the house without him seeing? That was going to be tough. I figured I would walk in without my bag, and if by some small miracle he was upstairs, I would dash back out to the car, grab my bag, and stash it somewhere before he came gallavanting down the stairs to greet me. 

No go. He was sitting on the couch working on his laptop when I got home. Crap. I shut the door, defeated. I'd have to figure out how to get my bag in the house some other time.

Hurdle #3: Brandt rarely leaves the house. AND he rarely leaves my side. Remember the post I did for his birthday? One of the things I said I love about Brandt was this:

"He follows me around the house. Seriously. If I'm downstairs he'll come down just to be with me. If I'm upstairs on the computer, he'll bring his laptop into the same room just so he can be near me. It's funny, and only a little odd, but I think it's cute. I get sad when I think there may come a day when he doesn't do that anymore - I hope it never happens."

Well, I didn't think it was so cute anymore. How was I supposed to put his basket together with him following me around everywhere? That was going to be tricky.

Well, the stars must have aligned perfectly for me because that night, Brandt wanted to go to the gym, and I just wasn't feeling it. I told him I was tired and wanted to stay home. Usually, his response would have been to stay home and work out with his stuff I got him last year for his birthday. But he shocked me and said he would go without me. Sweet! I'll just wait until he's gone, then go get my bag out of the car and get to work! It'll be perfect!

But wait!!! He'll want to take the car to the gym! The Blazer is a piece of hud, so of course he's going to take the Equinox. I'm going to have to get my bag out before he leaves.

So as soon as he went upstairs to change his clothes, I yelled, "I'm going to go get the mail," then made a mad dash to the car, grabbed my bag, ran to the mailbox (because he'd probably ask what mail we got), and hurried back to the house and stashed my bag under the stairs. Less than a minute later, he came downstairs, kissed me goodbye, and trotted off to the gym.

Phew! Close call. That was too stressful for me. It's no wonder I don't try to surprise him more often. Who would have thought putting together a dinky Easter basket would be so much work? I shakily sat down and put his basket together and stashed it behind the crock pot in the kitchen. And there it sat for the next five days.

Easter morning dawned and I had decided to make him hunt for his basket. I remember my mom doing this for us when we were kids, but she never hid them very hard (we had short attention spans), but I remember Jill telling me her mom used to hide their baskets really good - I remember her saying one year she searched for over an hour for hers (poor thing), so I figured this would make it more fun. So that morning I put a bright yellow plastic egg on Brandt's alarm clock so he'd see it first thing (even doing that was stressful because he is an extremely light sleeper. Just walking over to his side of the bed woke him up, but at least he was out of it enough that he didn't realize what I was doing). So as soon as he was fully awake, he saw the egg, got excited about it, and started eating the candy inside. He thought that was it. So I said, "maybe this means the Easter bunny left you a basket somewhere." So, just like a little kid on Christmas morning, he jumped out of bed, threw his clothes on, and dashed downstairs to where he thought he would have a basket sitting on the couch (I guess that's what they did in his family - the Easter baskets were in plain site on the couch on Easter morning). He came back upstairs, disappointed. I then said, "you know, sometimes the Easter Bunny thinks he's funny and hides the baskets - maybe you should look a little harder." So his grin returned and he dashed off to search for his basket.

I figured it would take maybe a good 30 minutes of looking before he found it. I thought it would be fun. Boy, was I wrong!! There was one thing I didn't count on: Brandt has ZERO patience when it comes to food. In every other aspect of life, he is as patient as can be. Far more so than I will ever be, that's for sure. But after just FIVE MINUTES of searching, he started to get irritated. Which is funny because he wasn't even looking that hard. Short attention span I guess. He actually opened the cupboard where it was hidden TWICE without seeing it (Heaven forbid he move the crockpot and look BEHIND it). The hunt wasn't turning out quite like I had expected. After eight minutes, I could tell he was getting upset. So I started giving him hints ("You're getting colder, now warmer, WARMER!" Seriously, he's such a child sometimes :) bless his heart). After just ten minutes of semi-valiant searching, he had his basket!

Don't let that grin fool you. He was quite the stinker about the whole thing. Lesson learned: Don't kid around when you tell Brandt you got him treats, just give it to him. 

He must have felt a little guilty afterwards because he did share some Reese's Pieces and Honey-Roasted Peanuts with me. What a guy. We watched "Despicable Me" that night - it was pretty funny! (the other movie is a Discovery Channel documentary on the T-Rex - seriously, he's a little boy at heart). All in all I think it was worth it. A bit stressful pulling it off, but it was fun to surprise him.

Hope you all had a Happy Easter!