Attention Fellow Shoppers!!!

I just got the greatest bargain of my life! I went to Bath & Body to get my free antibacterial soap with a $10 purchase; little did i know i would get so much more for free. They have a deal going on right now that if you buy two oils you get an oil warmer (a $15 value) FREE, so i thought to myself, "i am the best shopper, two free items". I went to check out and the guy that works there said that i qualified for their new Christmas preview book (another amazing deal in and of itself)... what does that mean? Well, he split my items into two piles and said if you buy these in two separate purchases then i get another item, ANY item in the store (under $13) for FREE, yes for free! So i got that cute pumpkin candle, sweet cinnamon pumpkin antibacterial soap, and oil warmer ALL for FREE and didn't spend over $20. They also have their three wick candles 2 for $20 and they have Christmas preview candles for $4 and Christmas wallflowers for $3, i may have to go back very soon and i hope all my fellow shopaholics enjoy these killer deals as well!!

Happy Golden Birthday!!!

Thursday, the 24th was Ry's golden birthday!! We both had to work and he wanted a really low key birthday; for those of you who know me know that that was SO hard for me because i LOVE birthday celebrations and going all out. I got up super early and made a yummy breakfast before we both had to go to work.

I sent Ry a candy bouquet at work:-) he was very surprised.
He said no presents, but i had to get him something, it just wouldn't have felt like a birthday, right? He got a pull up bar that he has been wanting forever, i know, not very exciting.

Just the two of us, we went to Applebee's for dinner, were too full for dessert there or the cake i made, bummer.

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!

Since Ry just wanted a low key birthday i planned his birthday weekend up in Island Park, the most relaxing place on the planet, and it was just the two of us. We drove up Friday night as soon as Ry got off work and watched Kung Fu Panda on the way. We got to the cabin, unpacked and crashed for the night.

We woke up to the most beautiful morning ever!! Ry got up and made breakfast while i slept in, what a sweetheart! After breakfast i was ready to go to the frog ponds because i had a little surprise for the birthday boy and he had absolutely no clue. So i pretended that i brought one of my dad's guns when he sneaked a peak under the quilt i had it wrapped in, luckily he still had no idea it was for him.

While Ry was setting up targets i put a big red bow on his present and sang happy birthday to him. He said "wait i thought that was your Dad's" he could not believe it was for him, he was sooo excited!! I'm so glad that i was able to surprise him, he is the hardest person to surprise because he is such i little snoop.

Happy Birthday Ry!!!

Checkin out the amazing scope!

I'm not going to lie, i'm a great shot!:-)

After playing with the gun for a while we went over to visit my grandparents at Mack's Inn (they have a fifth wheel trailer and a lot there). I forgot to pack a sweatshirt for Ry so we decided we needed to go over to West Yellowstone to find one. Our grandparents came along, we went to the icecream shoppe and the candy shoppe where we saw two darling missionaries making taffy. I talked to them for a while and told them about Marcus, they were super jealous that he gets to brand cattle, and i guess they aren't allowed to tract there, weird huh? Talking with them made me so happy and it made me miss Marcus lots! After we took my grandparents back to their trailer we went back to the cabin and watched a movie (we watched a few this weekend,) it was SO nice to just relax and enjoy each other.

Our chili and cornbread candlelit dinner, so perfect and soo delicious (even though i forgot to add the egg).

We did not want to leave and cannot wait to go back!! Thanks Dr. Willey and Dari, and HAPPY HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY RY!!!

Busy Weekend...

Yesterday we went up to Twin Falls for one of our good friend, Natalie's, wedding. Her grandfather is the temple president, and got to seal them , it was a beautiful sealing. The day was perfect, not a cloud in sight and it was the perfect temperature.
Such a gorgeous temple!!

Waiting for the new Mr. & Mrs. to come out...

Officially married!! They looked soo happy and we are so happy for them! Congrats Nat and Justin!!

Just and Nat grinning ear to ear, Nat looked beautiful and Justin look thrilled to finally be married.

We were trying to get all of Moroni into our picture as well, but could never get it to work.

After the sealing in Twin Falls we headed up to Boise to visit some of our best friends, Lucas and Holly. We ate at Changs, sooo yummy, and got the grand tour of down town Boise. There were so many great sales going on, too bad neither of the boys are avid shoppers. After wandering the down town area we went to the sub and Boise state, bowled, played pool, and pinball; thanks guys, we had a blast with you!!

Summer winding down...

LASER TAG!!

The girl's team!

After Bess' viewing we were all ready to go out and do something fun and decided laser tag was a perfect option. Mareesa, Ashley (Ry's sister), Brekka (Kaid's girlfriend), Kaz (Ash's boyfriend), Kaid, Ry and I all played; the boys killed us, but only because Kaid cheated, he would hold our guns down and just shoot our vest until he had to recharge his bullets. We had a great time!! Sorry the picture is so blurry it was the fog.

BESS' FUNERAL

The service was one of the nicest ones i have ever been to, many happy memories were shared and the great accomplishments of my great-grandmother were relived. She was such a wonderful person, the other side is so lucky to have her and all of her amazing talent. We will miss and remember her!

I love this pic, don't have i have the cutest siblings?!

My cute grandparents!

On our way to the cemetery.

This is the lid to Bess' concrete box that the casket goes it (i forget what it's called), i thought it was really pretty though.

FINALLY:
Ry and I have been looking for new furniture for our living room for a while now and finally found some!!

Us driving to Logan to pick it up!

The chair and ottoman, cute huh?

The couch, so much nicer than our old one!

The love seat, obviously already getting some lovin:-)

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

I always get so excited when the fair comes because i know fall is just around the corner. For Labor Day weekend Ry, Mareesa and I went up to Idaho Falls to see the Titanic exhibit at the Museum of Idaho, it was amazing!! I was sad that we couldn't take any pictures, i tried, but Ry got grumpy and there were lots of museum workers walking around. I was obsessed with learning about the Titanic when i was young and it was amazing to see actual artifacts that have been retrieved from the resting place of the amazing ship. At the beginning of the tour you got a ticket with an actual person who was on the ship with short bio and at the end you find out if you lived or died, Ween lived and Ry and I both died (my wife lived, i don't know why they didn't give you gender specific tickets). They had a chandelier from the first class dining room, it was still so beautiful; there were dining plates that were found in perfect rows because the wooden drawer that held them rotted away on the ocean floor, they had leather wallets and really cool old money, they even had port hole windows with the signature star that they had extracted. I was just blown away by how well some of the artifacts had been preserved. Did you know that in today's money it would cost $78,000 for a first class room!?! It really was a beautiful ship and i'm so glad we got to see the exhibit before it left.
After we finished our Titanic tour we headed down to Blackfoot for the Idaho State fair. We went through all the commercial buildings, saw all the animals, contemplated purchasing a pinball machine (we played for hours and i'm sure we will eventually cave), bought some super nice pans all made in the USA, and of course ate lots of really yummy, unhealthy food that you can only get once a year at the fair! Our food choices this year included: tiger ears, indian tacos, fried cheese curds dipped in ranch, home made curly fries, ice cream, scone nuggets dipped in honey butter, cheeseburgers, cotton candy, and i think that about covers it. I know what you are thinking, how in the world did we eat all of that, we went up to the fair three times while it was here.

Happy with our night at the fair...

So we wasted $10 trying to win $50 at this little stand. This is a bike that steers opposite and the goal was to ride it 15 feet, only to the orange line. Ry and i both tried, i thought, it's a straight shot it shouldn't be that hard, right!? WRONG! It was so stinkin hard, needless to say neither of us made it and we got three tries each and came out ten bucks short.

This would have been a better picture, but i was standing in the middle of the street trying to stop traffic to get it, didn't work out so well, but you get the idea.

Another Sweet Angel Joins the Other Side...

Last night our sweet little Bess (my great-grandmother) passed away around 6:00PM. She has been waiting 14 years to join her sweetheart on the other side and i am sure it was a happy reunion for her and the rest of her family. She truly was the sweetest, most kind and thoughtful woman ever. She has been suffering for a while now, always keeping a sweet demeanor and continuing to make us laugh.

I have so many happy memories of and with her...She used to make us a tin can full of our favorite vanilla kranza (yummy Danish little cookies,) on our birthday when she was able to cook. At Christmas we would have to be very careful when opening our presents because she would save every little scrap of wrapping paper. We use to walk her dog, Prince, an ugly little grey poodle; when we would return she/and Besterfar (our great-grandfather) would let us have some licorice candies from her beautiful glass candy dishes. She has always been so thoughtful of all of those around her, even when she was unable to cook she would offer to cook us things when we would come visit her. I remember swinging on her tire swing in her backyard on hot summer days with my brothers and cousins. She was always knitting or crocheting something, she would make kitchen towels and hot-mitts, she loved the BYU channel, and her very favorite color is purple. She loved when Mareesa or I would brush her hair and massage her scalp, she would get this look on her face that reminds me of a little puppy getting a good scratch behind his ears.

Our little Bess will be greatly missed here but i am so grateful that she isn't in pain anymore and that she gets to be with her family that she continually talked about joining. I hope that everyone around her can take her humble, sweet, and serving example and become more like her. We love you Bess!

Four Month Catch Up

Wow, has it really been four months since i have blogged?! My computer is completely out of commission we still haven't found a new one for me, but Ryan's is working great, so this will work for now. We have both been extremely busy with work, family and a few little vacations. There a ton of pictures i will just narrate from the bottom (earliest) to the top (most recent).

SHOPPING TRIP TO UTAH

Mareesa and Courtney enjoying a refueling lunch between stores on our day of power shopping.

My mom and i at Johnny Carinos... This was a few Saturdays ago, Ry had a boys trip planned with a few of his buddies. I got an email about the $5, $7, $9 SHADE warehouse sale, fate, i think so. We left early Saturday morning, Daddy made us a yummy new juice concoction for breakfast out of spinach, limes, and cabbage---it was delicious!! We hit the road and made good time, we got a few basics at the warehouse sale and then went to Nordstrom Rack and made a haul, it was one of those really good days where you find a ton that you love. We shopped at Gateway for a while and got to catch up with K and Cam for a little while. Overall a very successful trip!

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! 7/31/09

I cannot believe that it has been a whole year since i married my best friend and love of my life. This year has flown we have had a great one and i am excited for many more to come!! Happy anniversary I love you babe!

One of my favorite wedding pics

After our game we went and got our first sno-cones of the year. We found a sno-shack that makes them with icecream, like they do in Hawaii, so yummy. We were going to make homemade pizza together for our anniversary night, but we were both full from lunch and our sno-cones that we decided to just have popcorn and snuggle up for a movie. It was fabulous!!

We had our last softball game the night of our anniversary, it was fun, we lost (surprise, surprise). My cute family came to watch, and my mom made a darling anniversary date night present, with candy, popcorn, a movie, soda, and my favorite, a beautiful red German popcorn bowl.

Ry had to work the morning of our anniversary so we woke up early and made french toast together. We got an amazing couples massage followed by a yummy lunch at Senang.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAREESA!

Mareesa turned 14, she is getting SO old and heading to highschool in a couple weeks, it makes me sad because her turning 14 makes me think that i am turning 24 this year---ah!

MISSY RAE AND TOBY

I just love this picture, our kitties LOVE napping in the laundry basket, aren't they stinkin' cute!?

GLASS+FREEZER=EXPLOSION

I opened the freezer to get my lunch and Dr. Willey had put a glass bottle in there and it had blown the whole top of the bottle of and had exploded ALL over!! After i told him what happened, he said that the company that sent him the bottle told him it would be fine in the freezer... maybe there is something you learn in medical school that i don't know, but last time i checked glass and the freezer never mix:-) At least we had some entertainment for the day.

LAGOON!

Ry and i went to the gym a few Saturdays ago, i went to Jen's bootcamp and he biked with Dane, (Jen's hubby). As we were walking out together Jen said she was headed to Lagoon and asked if i wanted to come, obviously i couldn't resist. So i hurried showered and we headed down to Lagoon. We met some of her good friends, Spence, Kari and her two boys, Cam and Casey. This is the only pic we took:-( but we went to Lagoona beach, and rode rides up until the second they closed. We were exhausted on our way home but we had a blast!

GIRLS CAMP 2009

My mom was assistant stake camp director this year, girls camp was up and West Piney and it was gorgeous, and the girls had a blast! My mom had me come up and teach yoga for their spa day had so much fun. This is the huge slide that led down from the main cabin to the other camp areas.

Me teaching yoga outside facing the mountains, you could hear the creeks, birds and the air was so refreshing. It really was that spiritual experience that yoga can give your mind and body.

My mom is the greatest; she planned an outside movie for one of the nights. Everyone brought sleeping bags and sacked out for The Parent Trap, classic movie, and amazing night, good job mommy, great success!!

My mom and a couple of the other leaders getting ready for the movie.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Waiting to watch "THE BIGGEST SHOW IN IDAHO", it was fantabulous as always!

Lizzy with homemade icecream all over her silly face.

Every 4th my mom makes individual bags of cream and sugar so that we can make our own little baggies of homemade icecream. We shake them with ice and sea salt and it makes the best icecream you will ever taste, yum!

This was the most time consuming dessert i have ever made... So i found this picture online, fell in love, bought the ingredients, and about five hours later this is my creation. It was a tart recipe, which i have never made, it called for special vinegar that i had to go to three grocery stores to find, anyway it was delicious, but i don't know that it was worth all the hard work.

THE DAY BEFORE THE 4TH...

We met Ry's family at Massacre Rocks to fish and camp on the 3rd. We had lots of fun, i wasn't feeling well so i slept most of the time, but Ry did catch some fish, took some bike rides, and had yummy food.

Ry mountain biking...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!

My mom drove her present in to visit us, isn't it cute? She has been wanting a scooter forever and finally got a sparkly orange one, and now has her motorcycle license, so funny!

NEW KITCHEN FLOOR

The finished product!

Ry putting in our new kitchen floor, it was quite the challenge since our house is not even close to being perfectly square. But it turned out great, and the hard work paid off, great job honey!

I LOVE THEM...

I'm sure these kind of pictures bore other people to death, but i really do love my cats, and i think they are so sweet when they cuddle up together like this.

ANOTHER CAMPING TRIP

We took another camping trip to Warm River/Island Park. This is Cave Falls, we drove forever to find out that the caves were closed because of a rock slide. We were disappointed, but it was pretty cold so i was happy to get back into the heated truck.

Making breakfast under our make shift lean to, it dumped rain almost the entire trip. We played cards, fished and played more cards, not much to do with all the rain.

A huge sucker that Ry reeled in...it was such an ugly fish!

ANNUAL BRIAN REAMS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

Ry's team made it to the last game and lost to the ISU basketball team (they totally rigged it, in my opinion,) they played great and it was for a good cause. Second place, not so bad.

McKAID'S GRADUATION

Cute grad cap cupcakes my mom and i made.

Congrats Kaid!!

Kaid graduated Highest Honors, spoke at graduation, and did a great job. What an awesome kid, i am proud to say he is my little brother.

Mareesa's 8th grade GRADUATION

Mareesa and her friends at their graduation, can you believe she is on her way to highschool?

WARM RIVER CAMPING TRIP

Up at Bear Gulch in the old train tunnel, where my dad use to fish when he was younger, it was beautiful!

Looking down at Bear Gulch, we wanted to fish down there but the ground was too wet for us to hike down without falling to our deaths.

So... we went over to Buffalo river and fished for a while, the only thing i caught over there was a huge mossy rock. Can you see the thunder clouds behind us? That's the storm we had to beat before we got back to camp.

A little Swallow Tail that came to visit our camp site, she's so pretty!

Ry playing with the stuffed bear at the Mesa Falls Lodge.

All the fish we caught that day...

My dad caught the biggest one of the day, he was super excited!!

My little medium size fish.

Big Springs; it was gorgeous and we had so much fun wandering around.

The fam (minus Kaid) at Upper Mesa Falls

Ry wins the award for smallest fish of the trip, it was sardine size:-)

First day fishing of our camping trip...

UTAH

Swimming at Uncle David's house after a very long day of watching Ween play volleyball.

David, Daddy, and Mommy having a jolly old time together.

Isn't she a great lookin server?! We watched her play at Westminster for hours this day, she did great! She is trying out right now for Poky's Highschool team, good luck Weenie!