Lake Powell 2015 - Add pics

We absolutely love going to Lake Powell and were able to go for a full week! We drove down with Walt, Carol and Katelin and had a good time. They bought this new water pad so I played with the kids on that, took Paisley and Ryker on a kayak ride across the lake and explored, Tyler and I took the kids on a hike and they caught little frogs, and Tyler and I went on a gorgeous Jet ski ride on the last night where the sun was setting and the mountains looked like they were on fire. We had a great week!

The 4th of July 2015! Add photos

The 4th of July weekend was an absolute blast this year. The whole week was great! First, the end of the quarter for work was on Tuesday and I hit 124% of my number! We saw a movie as a team (San Andreas) on Wednesday and we all know how much I love going to movies. Thursday was Stonegate of Fire. We got together at the Stonegate pool for a BBQ. Both my sisters came and also Scott and Oakley, and of course the whole Parcell family and neighborhood. It was big this year! Walt makes the best smoked pork so we have really good sandwiches. Tyler and Drew did the fireworks again as they always do and they did an INCREDIBLE job! The fireworks were so big and it lasted for over 30 minutes! There were a few stray fireworks and one hit Jocelyn's car. Woops! 

The next day, we woke up and Tyler went golfing. I ran a few errands (like Steve's Father's Day present) and then we took a nap. After our nap, we picked up Jocelyn and headed up to Oakley for a delicious J Dawg BBQ with our family, Steve's family and their family friends. Jamie and the boys came up too. We then walked to the Oakley rodeo. It was such a fun rodeo!! It is always the best because it is a Pro rodeo so it so entertaining. They do such a great job! Afterward we walked back to the house and went to sleep. The next morning we woke up and went to the Oakley parade. Steve is one of the announcers. Jocelyn and I rode my scooter over. We then went back to the house and played games in the backyard and had lunch. My mom, Jocelyn and I took a little scooter ride to go get some gas then out to the gorgeous fields. Oakley is such a gorgeous town. I absolutely love it. We then went to the rope swing at Smith Morehouse Reservoir. I didn't go off of it because I didn't want to get my hair all wet since I didn't have time to shower but it was fun watching other people do it! Steve is a really good diver.

After the lake we said our goodbyes (after a popped tire in Steve's driveway that Tyler fixed) and headed down the mountain to Tyler's parent's house where we had a BBQ. It was delicious steaks. Walt is a great cook! We hopped onto our scooters (Ryker was with us because he LOVES LOVES LOVES Tyler) and went to the Stadium of Fire. It was amazing! Journey sang and the fireworks were incredible. They did a funny diet coke and Mentos presentation where they had hundreds of diet coke bottles splashing everywhere. Gentry sang and did an incredible job. It was so patriotic and I loved every second of it!

The next day we went to church then had Sunday dinner at the Parcells because Jay and Lindsay were in town for the weekend. We then had a Rook tournament. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast the entire weekend! It was one fun thing after the next!

New Friend! - add pics

When I did my infertility post, a cute girl that I knew of but had never met reached out to me saying she was in the same boat and wanted to get together. We met for lunch at Cubby’s last week and we literally are TWINS! We got married within a week of each other, we both graduated in public relations, she works at a software company too (Adobe), we both have blogs and we are both dealing with infertility issues. WHAT THE! We went to dinner again last night at Rubio’s and I just adore her. She has her first transfer tomorrow so I dropped off a little goodie basket to her work on my way to the airport today (I’m currently writing this from the plane headed to NYC to meet up with Oakley and Annalisa!) 

My mom, me, Whitney and Michelle took a self defense class yesterday and it was so good! I might sign up for repeated classes because it was very helpful information. After the class my mom gave me a bunch of old stuff which included my letter jacket and my drill team pants. HA! Now I can FINALLY be cool again! I think I’m going to wear it to work one day and see what people say just for fun ha ha ha.

Father's Day 2015 - add pics

Father’s Day dinner was absolutely delish if I do say so myself ;) Walt was on a vacation and my mom and Steve did Father's Day up at their house. We did chicken and shrimp kabobs, homemade rosemary parmesan fries and grilled veggie kabobs. Jocelyn and Katelyn came over an hour early to help cook everything. I got Tyler a grill for his birthday so we have really loved starting to use it and the kabobs were AMAZING!! I didn’t let spilling soy sauce all over the floor OR shattering my pitcher everywhere get in the way of my good fun :) After dinner we played Apples to Apples and laughed our heads off, went to see Kevin the neighbor pig, played croquet and Bocci ball in the back yard. It was a great night and we love our dad!

Strawberry Days + Dirt Biking + BBQ

Tyler and I volunteered for the Strawberry Days rodeo concession stand again and we invited Jocelyn to do it with us too that night! It was so much fun. Tyler cut the strawberries and was having races to see how fast they could put them through the machines. He was cracking me up, yelling things like, “Strawberries! Get your strawberries here!!” He is always the life of the party. Jocelyn and I filled the cups with cream after the strawberries were in there and put them in the containers with spoons to sell. We got finished pretty early so then we got to watch the rodeo! We went to sit by our friend Michael Van Tassell and some of Jocelyn’s other friends. Oh, and we rode over on the scooter so Tyler took Jocelyn to her car and then came and picked me up on the scooter. It was a fun night! 

The next day we woke up and cleaned the church then packed up and went dirt biking :) I love our hobby!! We went to Five Mile Pass. Tyler takes such good care of me. I felt a little nervous at first and then got more comfortable and I did really well! Tyler was super impressed! It’s fun to go really fast :) We stayed out for a couple hours. We went on lots of dirt trails and it was a blast. After our fun adventure we went to get lunch at Moochies which is Philly steak sandwiches and some of the best sweet potato fries I have ever had! We then went grocery shopping for Father’s Day dinner the next night, then went home and did a little housework, took showers, took a nap then watched Jurrassic Park J Tyler recorded all three Jurrasic Parks and I saw Jurrasic World with my work on Tuesday of that week. I loved it! That night we went to Jen and Kevin Kirkland’s for a BBQ because Casey and Ashley were in town and it was great to catch up with everyone. We sat outside and chatted, and Kevin made some amazing meat – my favorite was the steak and salmon! 

Utah Valley Half Marathon 2015 - add pics

Tyler ran the Utah Valley Half again! It was cool because Tyler’s whole insurance company ran it and his dad got everyone shirts and shoes to do it. I thought it was a fun idea! We went to Macaroni Grill with Carol, Walt, Shannon, Mike, Katelin, Drew, Rachel and Amy the night before then went over to Ty’s parents house to chat afterward. First we stopped at the GAP to get Tyler some cute clothes :)

The next morning we left our house at 4:45 and I drove them up to the starting line. There were people in the back of the truck too! After that I went back to the Parcells to try to take a nap then me, Rachel and Isla went to cheer them on at the finish line. Isla looked so cute in her little romper! I loved it. Tyler did a great job and then we got acai bowls at Ivie Juice Bar. We went back to the house to take naps then hung out at the pool the rest of the day, then had taco salad for dinner back at the house and sat outside. It was such a gorgeous day. 

The next night we drove up to my mom and Steve’s house with my sister and grandma. The Pfisters and Moessers came too and it was an absolutely perfect night. We did tin foil dinners in their gorgeous back yard, and had different cobblers for dessert. We visited the horses in the back pasture and just sat outside and talked. One of those nights you wish would last for hours and hours.

My New Dirt Bike - add pictures

After I got back from Canada, we left a couple days later to go Vegas to pick up my new dirt bike that Tyler found and bought for me! He got a dirt bike because he thought it would be a fun hobby, and I decided that I should get one too…why not! It will be a really fun hobby for us to have together. So we packed up Ty’s truck on Friday night after work and drove to Vegas! Tanner, Tyler’s cousin Cami’s husband, picked up the dirt bike for us. We stopped in St. George where Tyler’s parents were looking for a lot to build a home down there and saw their lots, then went to get frozen custard at Nielsen’s. We then drove to Vegas and stayed at Grannybird’s. The next day we woke up and packed Ron’s side by side onto the truck then met at Cami and Tanner’s to get my bike. She’s a beauty! Tanner has a dirt bike too so he got on his and Cami, Ron and the kids got into the side by side and we drove it out to the dirt by their house. It was a lot different driving on dirt and rocks! I felt more and more comfortable as we kept riding. On the way back Tanner’s foot slipped off the peg and he scraped up his knee. He couldn’t walk very well and they found out the next week that he had torn his ACL!! I felt so bad. We took them to lunch at a yummy restaurant called Skinny Fats, then went swimming the rest of the afternoon at Kathie and Ron’s. That night we went to pick up Grannybird at her group home and went to the Cheesecake Factory with Walt and Carol. We sat outside and it was the perfect weather. Grannybird seems as though she’s doing well and still has the best memory. After dinner, we went and dropped her off. The next morning we went to church and it was such a great sacrament meeting and relief society! One of guys bore his testimony and was a convert. I love what he said.  He said that someone asked him what the gospel meant to him and he said something like this, “It makes a bad person, like me, good. It makes a good person, like me, great. It makes a great person, like me, best. And it makes the best person, like me, know that I would rather die than dishonor His name.” It was so powerful! We also watched a really great Mormon Message video called LIFT. After church we went to eat at Macayo to get Mexican food. After lunch, Tyler and I went to take a nap then packed up and started our drive home. When we were about in Cedar City, we got a flat tire. Like really flat; it couldn’t even hold any air at all when we stopped at Maverick to try to fill it up. It was Sunday night and there weren’t any tire shops around. I was getting really nervous! Tyler is a man’s man and can literally fix anything though so he changed our tire, we ate dinner at a chicken place and drove the rest of the way home! It was such a great weekend and I love dirt biking.