oooootah

For my graduation present to myself, I decided that Burns and I should go to Utah to visit his brothers. I think I picked a good present because I had a GREAT time!

We found two girls to come down with us, Kristen and Lita, to save some moneys. Kobe came too! He snuggled with the girls in the back seat the entire drive down. We left on April 25th (right after I finished my last final exam) to spend the night in Raymond. We left early in the morning the next day, dropped Kristen off in Rexburg, and continued to Logan to drop Lita off.

We had Cafe Rio with Lita before we dropped her off, and let me tell you, it was DIVINE!!! I don't think I could ever come close to matching its awesomeness. Even Lita is hooked now...aren't you Lita (not meant as a question, but rather a polite but forceful statement).

Right after we dropped Lita off, we went up to the Logan temple grounds. That temple is so cool! It's the one that looks like a castle. We then walked around on a little path close by. It was pretty cold there, but the sun finally came out for our little walk. We then drove down to South Weber to invade Matt and Steph's house for three days.

Kobe in Logan

After a rest filled night (well, at least for Burns - I had Kobe) we woke up the next morning to a relatively warmer day. Matt made us some great breakfast burritos and then Burns, Matt, little Rhett, Rhett's little cousin, and I all went on a little walk by a river. Matt brought his throwing knives which Burns mastered in a matter of minutes.

Burns and Matt throwing knives into a tree.

We ate at Pizza Pie (I think that's what it was called?) for lunch. Apparently we couldn't miss out on this place. The slices were huge! When we got back, Matt got Buddy out so he could stretch his legs and get some fresh air. He's so cool.

Buddy the desert tortoise. 

Sam came over to visit and, man, these guys are just hilarious when they're all together. I don't think I stopped laughing pretty much the entire time we were down.

Steph playing Wii.

Steph was busy being a great mom playing Wii with Rhett because nobody else would. Awwww.

























Rhett got out "Break the Ice"! I loved that game as a kid. I won against Burns and then Burns won against Sam.

That night we decided to go to "Airborne". I loved this place. It is a gymnasium full of trampolines! Just take a look:

Burns, Steph, Rhett, Capri, and I all went in. Matt and Sam just watched. I had so much fun! This was just one more thing that Burns was really, really good at.

This is Burns being daring and front flipping over this hurdle:

This is Burns' double front flip:

This is me doing a back flip all by myself. I've done them before when I was younger but I needed help back then...I still need someone by my side haha.

We watched Iron Man 2 that night. On Saturday we all headed over to City Creek Mall. Before we got there we noticed a Japanese festival, so we walked through it. It was honestly the nerdiest experience I have ever...experienced... There were people dressed up as Pokemon having battles, and much, much more.

This is me giving Pedo Bear a hug. I don't know much about this character but I'm afraid to look given his name.

At the mall I looked in the store Solomon for some hiking boots and found a really great pair, but I think it will be cheaper if I get them elsewhere so I didn't purchase them. We went in a couple other stores, but everything was pretty expensive. Matt and Steph then left (they had dropped the kids off earlier) to enjoy their anniversary together, so it was just Burns, Sam, and me left. We went into the games store and found these babies.

This one is dedicated to Arianne:

A game where you add a caption to tell what happened right after the picture was taken.

This next game is dedicated to Burns:

We then went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I got the peanut butter cup, Sam got a rocky road type one, and Burns got the apple pie one. If you ever get a chance to have the apple pie, go for it! It's so good! We all shared each others and could hardly finish them. Plus also they always cut the apples up in the states for you. They should do that all the time here too.

We then headed over to the planetarium where Burns was in heaven the whole time.

This was a scaling of size compared to the Sun.

Burns on Mars.

On the Moon.

Me on Mars.

Then we went to Cafe Rio!

Burns and Sam

We watched Thor that night.

Sunday morning we all got ready for church. This is Capri being so cute:

This is Capri being so wiggly during Sacrament:

Okay that sacrament meeting I couldn't stop laughing. First off, Matt kept making words up for the opening hymn so I burst into fits of laughter. Then during the opening prayer, it was so quiet and Capri ripped 3/4 of a page out of the hymn book. Then Matt made more words up for the intermediate and closing hymns. We're so reverent.

When we got back to Matt and Steph's, Matt got Buddy out again. The weather was a lot nicer and the dogs could just not leave him alone!

Curious Georgie

We couldn't leave Utah without going on a hike, so Burns, Matt, Sam, and I hopped in the car and drove 5 mins to Adam's Canyon.

Georgie and Kobe came too. It was so beautiful there!

Sam carrying Matt up the hill.

Other hikers passed us and one lady had a dog that looked like Peiko. Kobe went crazy trying to get to her, but the lady was carrying her dog.

Lady with Peiko dog and Kobe going crazy. Sam climbed a tree.

We passed a nice little waterfall area so we decided to explore a little.

Boonie.

Me.

We got to the main waterfall roughly an hour after we began.

While Matt was taking pictures of Burns and me, he tried to make us kiss. Good try Matt. Little does he know that Arianne tries to get us to kiss on a regular basis. We don't do that.

Here is the waterfall and some crazy yet triumphant guy standing in the on pour.

I hate asking strangers to take my picture because they just don't know what I want in the background. Plus he must have thought that I looked pretty dang good in this picture to not take another one.

Yay waterfall!

On our way back down the mountain:

It was weird hiking for a couple hours and then being home within 5 mins. I'm used to driving an hour or so to get home.

Matt and Steph made us a divine dinner and the Harris' Aunt Nancy came by for a visit. We then watched Captain America. Now I'm all set to see The Avengers!

The next morning we left for home. These two cuties were so nice the whole time we were there.

Rhett and Capri

We went to Logan to pick up Lita and we found Sister Basi there! Just kidding. I phoned her mother for Angela's address and we stopped by to say "hi". We picked up Lita and we went on our way.

Burns randomly pulled over in Idaho to climb this monument.

We then stopped at the "marching trees" in Montana and walked out to meet the leader.

Marching Trees

Walking to the leader.

Beautiful skies.

The leader.

Not gonna lie, I love the different country side we saw, but it was so nice to be on flat land in Alberta. I get a little claustrophobic in the mountains and hilly areas sometimes.

Thanks Matt, Steph, and Sam for the amazing time! We love you guys!

conglomeration of the past little while in no particular order

I have had a little bout of SBN (sever blog negligence) over the past little while. I was super busy because of school, boyfriend, and dog, but now that I'm working, I have a little bit of free time! Yay! This one's gonna be big.

First to cross off the list to blog about is....

FREEEEEEEEDDDDOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

I have finished the requirements for my undergraduate degree. I am now waiting to see if I will be accepted into grad school at UofA. I am on the waiting list. This is killing me. At least I have my convocation to look forward to on June 5th.

THE HAMLET

It was sooo gorgeous out on Sunday April 22 that I couldn't resist the call of breezes, mountain air, and river water. I texted Arianne. It went a little something like this:

P: What doing today?
A: Well church of course! Followed by some outdoor adventure yet to be determined. What you?

P: No way. All of the things you said you are doing today is exactly the things that I'M doing today!

A: Well boy howdy! What say we rendezvous and adventure together??

P: Okeeee!!!!

A: We are going at like two.

P: Where??

A: Um... The hamlet? it's out your way.

P: Whaaaaa? Wha you mean?

Then Kutarnas and Biebers took Burns and me there. It was sooo great.

When we walked on the ice, it broke into long crystals. It was so fun to play with.

Me, Arianne, Ashley, Alex, Carol

See what I meant when I said the ice was fun to play with?

Finally Burn and I have a great, professional pic together that's not at a wedding haha.

More ice.

Nitty loved throwing rocks into the river with the boys.

A competition between Arianne and Marshie to see who could withstand the ice's icyness the longest. In bare feet. Marshall won.

Burns and Andrew jumped in the river. They be sooo crazy.

BIRTHDAY PIZZA


The Sunday before this was Denise's birthday, so Burns and I were invited to Rick's daughter's house for pizza. She makes great pizza. Then Burns and I found these babies:

Burns was a natural (does that surprise me? No.) and was running around and jumping all over the place. Luke was up from Utah and he tried them out. It was funny to watch.

Eden took this pic of me.

Here is the very 3 year old.

CLEAN TEETH


The day before I left Calgary for Utah, I decided to get me some clean teeth! I had texted Arianne the night before to see if there were any open spots, then she called me the next morning because there was an opening at 10:30! I hopped on the bus and made it downtown to Core Dental. After having my teeth cleaned by the most awesome dental hygienist I have ever experienced, Arianne took a break and we headed to Sunterra Market for the most delicious build-it-yourself-salad I have ever experienced.

Is there something in my teeth?

 We love downtown with all its tall buildings and whatnot.

After that I headed home to get ready for my big trip to Utah! And that trip deserves its own blog post so I'll be updating reaaaallly soon but right now I have stuff to do.

easters

Man this spring has been turning out so great!

There was a freak snow storm last week but everything was so pretty!

The next pic is just awesome so I wanted to post it:

Those are tanning goggles.

On Thursday night, Burns wanted to change the oil in his car, so we got some painter suits on and jacked the car up in the shop. Burns taught me the ways of the oil change. Then we saw how corroded his car battery was so we cleaned that up. We probably spent about a half an hour looking for a nut that went to the battery. It had been accidentally hit and it fell underneath the battery. We thought it fell onto the floor and maybe even into the drain, but Rick lifted the battery up and there it was!

After the oil changing adventure we went to Denise's and decorated some Easter Eggs! It was pretty fun but I was sooo tired.

On Good Friday Burns and I didn't have school, so I cleaned in Airdrie and then went to the school to work on an assignment that was due on Monday. I decided that if I finished this assignment, I would let myself go to Raymond on Saturday night.

Saturday came, I cleaned again in Airdrie, went straight home, showered, went straight to Burns' and had an Easter party with the Heningers. There was a tonne of great food and we had a great time with the kids. We had an egg hunt and we played some games at the park. Kobe gorged himself on egg the whole time. By the end of it, he wouldn't even sniff an egg.

Daryn gave us a ride to Raytown and we had an epic game of "Zombie Soccer" with all the siblings. Good times.

That night we played "Liar's Dice" and I got second! I haven't gotten that far in that game in a looong time. I should sit in between Marshall and Burns more often. After the game everyone was on their smart phone....except Burns cause he doesn't have one. So he was doing physics instead.

A great pass-time at the Leishman's is hanging upside down on the back stretcher.

Easter Sunday came around and what else to do before church than play a round of baseball?

After church Burns and I decided to walk home through the fields. Yes, I walked home with pointed-toe flats, nylons, and a skirt. Yes, I ripped my nylons on barbed wire, but now I can use them for storing onions like I saw on Pinterest!

We played another round of baseball before dinner.

Naves was sick the whole weekend, but as soon as she was taken to the doctor she was her fine, happy, darling little self.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the fun times and the great food!

tag: i'm it

If you haven't heard of this survey going around in the blog world recently, don't be sad. I just learned of it last week. I was tagged by Lita and by Kristen (kind of haha) so I decided to do it too! I am picking and choosing the questions that I think I can answer the best out of the two that I was tagged in.

The Rules

1. Post these rules

2. Post 11 random things about yourself

3. Answer the questions provided by the person who tagged you

4. Create 11 questions for the people you tag

5. Tag 11 people

11 Random Things

1. My favorite cookies are chocolate chip. They are probably my favorite dessert.

2. If I had all the time in the world to cook and bake, I would enjoy it a lot more. I really like making food, I just hate having a time limit. I also really enjoy making complicated dishes that I've never tried before.

3. I don't like cheese cake. Many people gasp at the thought, but I just don't. However, I discovered only on Sunday that I actually DO like a certain kind of cheese cake. The non-baked kind. DIVINE I tell you!

4. You probably already know this, but I beat "Portal" and "Portal 2". I wear my t-shirts with pride. 

5. You know "Handel's Messiah"? Yeah...I didn't until I started dating Burns 3 years ago. 

6. I have a lot of socks and underwear specifically for not doing my laundry very often. I hardly ever run out of these clean articles of clothing.

7. I don't ever wear half of my shoes, but I just can't seem to let them go. Hoarding strikes again!

8. I received a scholarship about two years ago and I have gotten "congrats" in the mail for it in the form of a little certificate for the past two years. I get super excited every time I see the words "scholarship" on the envelopes...but this just goes nowhere.

9. I would have to say that my favorite song at this very second is "Bambi" by Tokyo Police Club. It has been a while since I have loved a song. The last song I LOVED was "Sunlight" by Bag Raiders.

10. I have had to use glasses since grade 3. 

11. I am graduating so sooooon!!!!

11 Answers

1. Would you ever get plastic surgery? If yes, when and what?

No. I hate the thought of any surgery let alone changing my body surgery! I am quite satisfied with the way I look. BUT I have been thinking about this more and more and if I were to get any kind of plastic surgery when I am older, it would be botox to get rid of the lines that will eventually develop in between my eyebrows. I'm not saying I will for sure do this, I have just been thinking that maybe a certain someone isn't so crazy for wanting it after all. 

2. If you had to be without one of the 5 senses, which one would you choose and why?

 I think Kristen had a good plan with the absence of taste. Taste is at least 80% smell so I would still be able to "taste" a lot of things and it certainly would make eating a lot less enjoyable. Without sight life would just suck. I could live without hearing but I would rather have no taste. Touch is pretty much essential if you want to keep yourself safe. 

3. So you have anamorph powers (you can transform into any animal) what would it be?

I would transform into a bird of some sort. That way I could fly places instead of take the bus.

4. What is something that other people do that just drives you up the wall?

Touching or moving my stuff without asking.

5. What is your favorite song to sing along to? And I mean, you are losing your mind and blowing your vocal chords..

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" performed by Sam Harris. Look it up. Ha-Ma-Zing. Also any  of the songs off of Second Hand Serenade's first album. It might be an EP or demo...not sure which. 

6. If you could play a part in any movie ever made, what character would you be?
If Russell Crowe was a female, I would love to play the lead in "Gladiator".

7. What do you struggle with?

I have just discovered this year that I have a hard time handling the unknown.

8. What is the one thing you do that helps you relieve stress?

I talk to Burns. 

10. If you could be the best in the world at anything, what would it be and why?

I would love to be able to speak any language fluently that I wanted to learn. You could go anywhere and help anyone with this skill. 

11. Tell me one of your most vivid childhood memories?

When I flipped over my handle bars riding home from school on my bike in grade 1. I hit the road with my chin. I rode all the way home with blood dripping onto my jacket and crying. I just remember no one helping me and how distraught I was about that. I finally got home and entered my house bawling. My mom was doing someone's hair at the time and she immediately took me to the clinic to get 3 stitches. 

I don't know if a lot of people read my blog, so if you read this and you haven't been tagged yet, then you're it! Just answer these questions. 

earth hour twenty twelve

Earth Hour - March 31st, 2012 - 8:30pm to 9:30pm

I love our earth, it's the only one we've got.
I try to be good to it by recycling and re-using.
I wish everyone on Earth would appreciate what we have here.

Carl Sagan puts what I'm trying to say here so poetically, so I think he should take it away from here:

I invited the Biebers, Kutarnas, Marshall, Carol, and Burns to our own little celebration of Earth Hour. We lit candles and ate cake batter ice cream (thanks Biebs!) and chocolate dipped strawberries (thanks Carol!) by the soft glow of tea lights.

PS - "60+" means 60 minutes or more of no power. 

Taken from Arianne's blog.

Taken from Arianne's blog.

The next day I heard one of the X92.9 hosts saying that he forgot about Earth Hour like everyone else in Calgary. He then went off on a tangent about how shutting off a few lights for an hour won't make a difference in how much energy we consume. 

He obviously missed the point. 

The point is to raise awareness. The point is to bring people together for a good cause. The point is to think about how much we can do to help sustain our planet. 

Not only did I shut off all my lights, I unplugged my constantly plugged in computer, clock, and microwave. If everyone in Calgary unplugged things that are constantly plugged in, I'm sure it would make at least a little bit of a difference. 

Anyways, I love Earth and I loved our Earth Hour. 

Thanks for coming everyone!