Summer 2011

Summer has been wonderful. I have not really kept up on the blog so here is an overview of our summer.




Tuttle family at the cabin

  We've taken a couple of trips to the Tuttle cabin up by Strawberry. We really enjoy being up there riding dirt bikes, playing on the lake, going for walks, and playing in the woods.                                                          

We started a monthly get together with our friends and have really enjoyed doing that. We've watched hockey games, played wii, played frisbee golf, enjoyed a lot of great food from everyone, and took a trip to the cabin with the group. Brad even surprised me with a pink wii remote while we were at the cabin with everyone haha love it! Its something we plan on continuing when school starts because hanging out as a group has  been really fun.

 We also got a cuddly kitten. It was a big step for Brad who typically does not like kittys

(He made an exception for this one)                                                                   
It was living in a scary house and all of the other kittens, even the mom, had been given away. We put it back on formula because it was too small. It was a good thing because we later learned when I took it to be neutered that it was only 2-3weeks old when it was given to us, oh and its a female haha. I told the vet I was there to have my kitten neutered and how old I thought it was. Man did I feel smart when she told me how wrong I really was haha. For all of you Arrested Development fans we named the kitten Tobias. Keep in mind we named her that when we though she was he but Brad won't let me change the name so Tobias it is. She acts a lot like a dog. She does well in the car and likes having the window down so it can blow in her face. You wouldn't believe the weird looks you get when your cat is hanging its head out the window haha. She comes when called, enjoys being scratched behind the ears and loves playing with tennis balls so we joke that she is our cat-dog.



        

          Gus and Tobias are friends.

  We've been fortunate enough to have the pass of all passes and it has been a blast! We have spent a lot of time at Seven Peaks! Brad and I have gone alone and enjoyed racing on the slides. I had so much fun when Shannon and I went together to just relax in the wave pool and in the lazy river. We even went with my family and Shannon for the 4th of July after we had gone to the balloon festival of course. It was wonderful. We played in the sun, I went to see Shannon's new apartment, then we went back to my parents to BBQ. The fireworks were so fun this year! I love fireworks so we drove with my parents to watch the fireworks at the Stadium of Fire! Love it!

My cousin Mckinley needed to have a "practice" sleepover so her and her brother Camden spent the night. We played with Tobias, watched Kung-Foo Panda (a 1st for Brad) and the next morning headed to seven peaks.

We really enjoyed the 24th with the Tuttle family. The night before was Lynn and Mary Jane's  40th class reunion and Brad, Shannon and I were asked to serve pie for the party. We had fun hanging out together and snuck to Glade's for food when we weren't needed in the Kitchen. Then the 3 of us headed to Grandma Tuttle's for a sleepover! She is seriously the cutest thing ever! The next morning we all headed to the Spanish Fork parade. Lynn and Mary Jane were in the parade and Mary Jane was so excited to wave to "her corner" where we all sit. After we ate lunch Brad and I started filling up water balloons and they were a huge hit. We played catch and water balloon volleyball. The little kids loved throwing balloons at their parents. It was so funny to watch Deacon with the water balloons.

The 26th was my mom's birthday but we gave her a birthday present a bit early and surprised her with tickets to go see Kenny Chesney! He played with Uncle Kracker and Billy Currington! They even played "you make me smile" one of my favorites. My mom and I love country music. Super fun! For the 26th the boys went and bought awesome fireworks and colorful fireworks for the birthday party.

The only thing that was a bit of a downer this summer was when Brad almost lost his finger. I was at home and I was a little upset because Brad was 40 mins late getting home from work, the night before he was 3hrs late so I decided I was turning my phone off and going to bed. Right as I found my phone to turn it off I received a phone call. It was Brad calling from a co-worker's phone to tell me they were on their way to the hospital because he had caught his hand in a machine called the fruit blender or something. Luckily he did not loose the finger and only required the doctors to put a few holes in his nail to relieve pressure and stitches around his finger to try to patch what they could back together. It has taken awhile for it to be okay enough for him to use and it will be even longer before the nerves heal but all in all he is very lucky.

In June we celebrated our nephew Deacon's 3rd Birthday and then in July we celebrated his little sister Kyla's 1st birthday. We gave Deacon a train set and he seemed to really like it so I guess we did okay. I couldn't make it to Kyla's because I was home sick but Brad took a lot of pictures and videos for me.

On August 12th Brad hiked up Timpanogos Mountain. 16miles total!! His dad said that is what he wanted to climb the mountain for his birthday so climb it they did. All of his brothers as well as a few friends made the hike. Way to go guys!


Summer has been a lot of fun and I'm not really ready for it to be over. We have been able to get to know some more of our neighbors and enjoyed evening walks. We've spent a lot of time with our families and even celebrated our 1 year anniversary but that post will have to come later :-)

Boston

Next on our list for summer fun was Boston!! One of my favorite places. I was so excited to have Brad meet all of my family that lives there. A lot of them were able to come to our wedding but not all so this was a chance for everyone to meet the hubby.

Brad having lobster at Quincy market

The first thing we did was go to Quincy market for some food (well first if you don't include fighting the downtown traffic for an hour to try to find a parking spot for under $20) Brad went straight for the lobster and I followed close behind with lobster bisque. Yum!


watching videos with the family at Auntie Jen's



Brad was wonderful and spent a lot of time with my family! We had a BBQ with them at my Auntie Jen's and everyone came to visit. Brad found 2  hockey shops that he really wanted to visit. One of the shops had a basement that was all goalie gear, it was like hockey heaven for him. At first I had fun trying on masks and blockers that were huge on me....then two hours later I was ready to go haha but he really enjoyed himself and I'm hoping he'll buy new gear soon.

We spent Mothers day in Newport. Gorgeous! We went with my Auntie Theresa and her two daughters Olivia and Shelby. We ate lunch by the harbor and then did the cliff walk. The mansions along the walk are incredible. Before leaving we went to the Newport creamery to enjoy some awful-awful's :-) best milkshakes!

We walked some of the freedom trail, ate a lot of sea food, and had a blast with all of the family. Of course you can't be in Boston and not see the Red Sox so we headed to fenway for a ballgame! We invited some of the cousins and had so much fun! The Red Sox won in extra innings and we were right behind home plate to celebrate the win!!!

 We were sad to have to head back home and it was only made worse when we got stuck in Denver. All of the planes that were going to land 10mins after us were re-routed to SLC....seriously the only time I wish my plane would have been late. Then they kept us in the terminal with most of the gates open. No big deal right? Wrong because it was snowing and I was NOT dressed for snow. Finally around 1am we decided to stop waiting and find a hotel. 5mins later they announced there would be no more flights out because they were out of de-icer hmmm. At least we had found a hotel right before. Then we had to go try to find our luggage that was literally all on the ground in a wet heap with along with all the luggage for every other passenger waiting. While Brad tried to track our luggage down I went to get a shuttle.....oh wait shuttles were done about 15mins before and they were not sending out any more. So we had to talk to random people to see if anyone was going the same direction and wanted to split the over priced cab fair. Denver has no hotels next to the airport so having to go at least 10miles in a cab at that time was a little difficult to work out. Eventually we got to a hotel. We were worried because our luggage was wet so we quickly took out our belongings....most of Brad's was wet and my clothes and souvenirs were dripping water when we pulled them out. Thank you to the airlines who decided to leave our stuff in the snow for hours and for being kind enough to tell us you only cover dry cleaning not water damaged straighteners, cameras or anything else of importance haha. We were lucky and caught an afternoon flight so we were able to sleep in unlike some of the people we met. And the hotel had a restaurant so we had an enjoyable breakfast and on our way back we were able to catch a shuttle :-)
We were sad to have to go back to work but wow what a fun vacation!!!

DC

So I have definitely neglected the blog for a bit. I've just been enjoying summer :-)
As soon as school was out we began our summer fun by taking a trip to the East Coast. We were lucky to be able to experience so many fun and exciting things while we were there. In DC we had the chance to tour the Capital...so many neat things there including the bust of Brigham Young. We stopped by the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress for some pictures.

Capitol

Doors to the Supreme Court

US Supreme Court

               Brad was very excited as our trip got closer because he realized that his favorite hockey team would be playing in the finals while we were there. So we of course could not miss that since neither of us had ever been to a NHL game. It was a very exciting game and the Lightening won! It was awesome to see them win other than we were among about 5 Lightening fans there. There were a lot of angry fans, one cute little woman even told us good luck getting home safe but not to count on it. haha really? There ended up being a ton of police all throughout the streets and the metro because it was the night Bin Laden was found. We decided not to go to the White House and just head back to our hotel. The next day when we did visit the the White House we saw President Obama walking his dog with his daughters. We couldn't believe how much security was needed for walking a dog haha. 

We also went to Ford's theatre. The history in DC is incredible. We were also able to visit a few of the Smithsonian's....so much fun! It was impossible to see everything but we sure gave it a try :-) I really liked seeing Julia Child's kitchen! Brad was such a good sport and let me stay there watching all of the video clips and everything. He even pretending like it was a big deal when I explained why people left butter there haha poor guy but he humors me so that I can have fun.

We did a lot of walking and visited all of the Monuments, I liked the view from the Lincoln Memorial the most. The monuments are amazing at night!

   



World War 2 Memorial

We had time to visit Arlington National Cemetery and see the changing
 of the guard.The one thing I had requested was that we visit Mt. Vernon.
 It was so beautiful. We took a tour and we were the only two people
with our tour guide. She showed us things that weren't open to the public
and a few things from the National Treasure 2 movie. (Brad thought we
 had both seen it but I hadn't haha but we watched it when we got back home)

We spent a night in Gettysburg seeing where Lincoln's address was, and taking a segway tour of the battlefields. The segway tour was totally worth it. Again we were the only two people with our tour guide and we were able to see so much and learn things we would not have picked up on if we had done it alone. Plus lets be honest segways are a blast!

Okay I'm sure most females can agree with me when I say a town of chocolate is pretty much the best thing ever! So with that being said we could not miss out on driving to Hersey Penn could we? Nope! Brad was super excited to have the chocolate milk :-) We made our own candy bars and did chocolate tasting from around the world :-) Um yes A-mazing

 

We loved this part of our trip and when it was over it was time to continue on to Boston

Vegas & BYU

Every year Brad & his brothers go to Vegas together. The past two years when I have been a part of this fun trip it has been conveniently timed with the Mountain West Tournament. Obviously with the way BYU played this year it was made even more fun. It also falls on the day of our first date. To some it may not be a big deal but our first date was on Friday the 13th, its a big reason we chose a Friday the 13th for our wedding so we try to do something to celebrate that while we are down there.

Butterfly house

Right before the game Brad surprised me with a shirt that said "yeah he shoots from there" with Jimmer's number :-) So cute! The game was awesome! We were there to see Jimmer score 52 points in a single game :-) We played at the casinos. This means my sister inlaw and I played penny slots while the guys played craps. I played a little but stuck mostly to the cheap stuff. I made 29 cents haha luckily Brad did better than me!

Since I missed out on the girls shopping trip, Brad was super sweet and took me shopping the next day...for most of the day. We saw a lot of fun things, walked through some animal exhibits, ate yummy food and of course since it was the 13th we stopped by one of our favorites Serendipity! We love the frozen hot chocolate that they make...its amazing!

A little bit after we made it back home, BYU beat Gonzaga. Brad came home from work a little before midnight and said "they just announced that BYU is landing in Provo soon. I almost went but then I thought maybe I should just come home because you were waiting for me." He is thoughtful but I said "lets go right now." So we did. We called his brother and his wife so they could come along and we rushed to the Provo airport. We made it there just after they landed and it was packed!!! Jimmer had a ton of security and didnt stop for anyone but we did snag a quick picture with Abouo. It was a quick fun adventure that I felt deserved notice. And yes I am wearing my pajama's under that coat haha

6 months and Valentinesday

Normally I try not to go on and on about the lovey dovey mushy stuff but I think there are a few exceptions this being one of them.
Brad and I made plans to go to Ogden to see one of my friends and to visit my cousins who I was missing alot. After school we hit the road. When we were just past Lagoon we found out that my friend would not be home afterall...kinda sad because we havent seen eachother since before Brad and I got engaged and I was supossed to get a box of movies back for my brothers. Of course I still wanted to see my cousins because we hadnt seen then since the wedding so we continued on. I have the cutest cousins and they were so excited when we made it to their house. We all went out for frozen yogurt and did a whole lot of laughing :-)
Brad said that since we still had a lot of time before the Jazz game he wanted to take me shopping at the Gateway. Like I'm going to turn down shopping! While we were there I turned the tables and convinced Brad to get new shoes for himself. I know I love shoes but really I don't need more and he has been wanting new DC's for a long time.

After when we were heading to the Jazz game brad pulled into the Little America :-) One of the places we went during our honeymoon. He had a room for us. Then when were unloading our bags that Brad had packed, my mom called. I know he was trying to make it so I couldnt hear but I know her voice very well.
I bugged him until he told me we were meeting them at the ticket office. This was the Jazz's first home game since Jerry left so I was excited we would be meeting them.
We headed over and as we were about to pass Ruths Chris I said "we need to take my parents there like we promised." Seriously as soon as I had finished my sentence we passed through the light and Brad turned in haha what a sneaky buggar.
My parents were already there waiting to have dinner with us.I love spending time with them so it was the perfect touch. It was such a nice evening and I was even able to feed my crème brule love!

We had breakfast and the most delicous hot chocolate the next morning at the hotel. It was such a sweet surprise expecially coming from my cute husband who has a very difficult time keeping surpirses.

Don't worry I had planned a 6 month/Valentinesday surprise for him as well. Since he lost his wedding ring at Thanksgiving when we were sledding I knew I wanted him to have another. But he insisted on getting it himself this time around...well I waited    and waited    and waited. Then I decided if it was a gift he couldnt say no :-) I wanted it to be more than just -here's a new ring!- so this is what I did.

I made these cute fortune cookies from flower wire, felt and ribbon. Then I put little slips in each one of them. The slips were all fun little coupons. I made one fortune cookie a little bigger and put tiny pink hearts on it and that was the one with the ring inside.

So there you have it. The 6 months and Valentineday lovey dovey mushy-ness.

Snow fun & Jazz games

This post is a little bit late. I have no excuse. I simply keep forgetting to post it. We had a super fun day and some cute pictures to go along with it so I dont want to completely neglect it though so here it is.

We decided it would be fun to take my parents with us to spend the night at the Tuttle cabin. We had origionally planned to spend Friday night and return Saturday. But then my parents realized they had no one to stay with their dog and my dad might not be out of work in time so we changed our plans and decided to go Saturday morning.

We later learned that my brother Brandon decided to go play basketball instead of coming with us so he could've watched the dog and my dad left work early....oh well such is life.

We drove up to where the snowmobiles are kept. Unloaded....okay lets be honest the guys did most of the unloading and we just put the waterbottles in our backpacks and kept warm in the truck :-) Then it was off to the cabin. Can I just say the mountains are gorgeous when it snows!

We played games, ate yummy treats, and enjoyed hot chocolate by the fire. When we went back outside my wonderful, sweet, caring husband decided it would be in his best interest to throw me into the snow. Well obviously that means war so my mom took pictures of us tumbling down the hillside in the snow. Super fun! Not so fun trying to get back uphill when I kept sinking to my waist....but we had a good laugh.

We went and played around the hills and on the lake for awhile and then had to head back.
We had planned on heading back much much much earlier but the timekeeper decided playing was more fun :-)

So after grabing lunch in Heber we made it home with 15mins for me to shower, change and get ready to go to the Jazz game with some of the Tuttle clan. I flew to get ready but really as most of you girls know, it is very difficult to achieve all of that in such a short period of time. So I left with wet hair haha the rest of me was ready so maybe that counts.

We had so much fun! We drove to SL with Aunt Marie, Patty & Grandma Tuttle. I have to tell you Grandma Tuttle is the cutest sweetest Grandma and her and Brad are very close so it is always fun to see them together.

I have to admit I am very easily distracted when we are with her because she has the best stories! So we wispered back and forth through a lot of the game :-)

So it was a fun-packed day! Time with both families and really we had a blast doing everything