Golden Birthday

Well folks, it's finally happened. I'm an old fart.

over the hill. past my prime. it's all downhill from here.

im so estatic.

all that comes next is wrinkles, baby pooch, bodacious love handles, and age spots... right?

can i even still shop at forever 21???

so many things to ponder.

 Thank goodness it was the best birthday yet.

Because lets be honest, I for real celebrated all month.

On Saturday I got to go shopping, and then my parental units were kind enough to spoil both Steven and I. We went to our favvvorite chinese place and I convinced Steven to go see the Scarlet Pimperel. And guess what.... success! we found a play he actually LIKED.

who'da thought that would ever happen?

I'm just sad he missed out seeing Viewmont's version.

It was the best play they'd ever done, hands down.

it's been over a year and im still obsessed.

Sunday was spent relaxing then hanging out with my family and wayy over indulging in all things delicious.

 Calories don't count on birthdays, don't cha know?

And i made pumpkin cookies for the 13th time.

yes, they are that amazing.

I spent my birthday morning sleeping in and cuddling puppies in bed.

Oh and totes catching up on Once Upon A Time. Of course.

Steven got back from work and took me out to lunch at that new place called "Johnny Rockets."

It was pretty spendid. And very adorable.

The rest of the day i dragged him to all around town to all the places he didn't want to go.

My birthday is probably the ONLY day i could get him to go into Hobby Lobby with me.

and then he convinced me to finally pierce my ears. life changes happening over here!!

i loved having the long weekend. but then i had to come back to this.

it's just a taste of what my life has been life.

choas.

i promise i haven't died. yet.

but if i keep working ten hour days it just might do me in.

we have to find creative ways to not go insane.

our little baby bean is totally adorable, right??

but man, is she sassssy!

it's hard to believe such a little body can have such a big attitude.

we love our little spaz ball.

Bittersweet

This last week has been the pits. Just plain awful. We had to make a decision I swore I'd never make. And it was harder then I ever could have anticipated.

Y'all know we love our puppy babies. But for the past couple months due to schedule and job changes, it was making it really hard on them. Particularly Graham. Big dogs just don't do we'll in apartments we've decided. He was happy, but we both knew he could be happier. Steven tried to convince me to let him find a new family for graham. I was so mad, and said there was no way.

A few weeks went by and I started feeling like maybe he was right. That maybe there was another family who would be better for our big boy. We put him up for adoption, and not a half hour later a lady called about him.

She told us how her family had just lost their lab, and they felt a huge hole in their family. Talking to her we found out they have a huge fenced in yard and 5 boys from 3 to 15. And most importantly, they all loved dogs.

A few of the boys and their dad came to meet graham. Graham acted like they were his new best friends. The boys already loved him. They all felt like this was the dog for them. So they took him.

And I bawled all weekend.

The mom has been texting me this week. Sending pictures, telling me the things he's been up too, and continually thanking me for giving them the best dog ever. It's made it a lot easier. I know we made the right choice for all of us. Graham is having the time of his life.

It's like a wise old wizard once said, "sometimes we must make the choice between what is right, and what is easy."

It would have been easy to just keep him, and not worry about anything. But we love him too much for that.

Today the mom texted me this:
"Just FYI: My 5 year old in his prayer this morning said "thank you for Graham cracker to come to our family". He also said "Graham is better than washing my hands"... In referring to how he licks his hands clean... Just thought id share :)"

As hard as it was, we know he is happy. And being spoiled to death :)

summer changes

Well hey. it's been awhile. 

With summer came many changes. And luckily for us, they were pretty dang good ones.

I started a new job, and so far it's been crazy hectic but I sure love being busy. It's barely leaving me enough time to cook dinner, do laundry, go to the gym, and keep up on The Bachelorette! So obviously priorities have been made, and dinner and laundry have been cancelled for a while. I know, what would Steven ever do without me??

We've been out boating every chance we get, and oh my is it a blast! We only have about two more weeks till FLAMING GORGE. As in a week long boating trip. Heaven.

Our puppies are loving the sunny weather, especially when we take them to play with the other dogs at the park.

We had a super fun and relaxing fathers day weekend. Lots of board games, cook-outs, and sunburns. But isn't that what it's all about? That, and fathers. I sure do have an amazing dad, grandpa's, and father-in-law... and of course baby daddy :)

Steven isn't a father yet, by any technical terms at least. But i can already tell, he's gonna be the best daddy ever. Until then, I think we have our hands full. 

hope you had a fun father's day honey-buns! love you like cuhrazy.

i have a syndrome

Last weekend, Steven and i ventured into downtown SLC wanting to get some Cheesecake Factory in our bellies. Only problem was, so was everyone else. We got there around 6:30, and basically the wait was 2 years long.
not really. but still.
Luckily it was delicious, though i'm not sure if i'd say it was completely worth the wait.

I've decided i have a serious problem. A disease, if you will.

Let's call it the "Bad-Haircut-Syndrome."

I wait and wait and wait till my hair resembles a lions mane to get it cut... trying to put off the unavoidable as long as possible.

But no matter how much i try, i always give in and make my way to the salon.

It starts off by me showing them a picture of what i want it to look like.

They act like they got it down, and pull out the scissors.

they start snipping away, and half way through say something along the lines of,

"is that was you were thinking?" or "is it looking ok?"

...and this is where my illness kicks in.

no matter how completely OPPOSITE of what i wanted it is...

i bite my lip, nod my head, and say "yes, that's perfect"

*forehead-smack*

so on they carry, along their merrily scissior happy way, until my hair is so absolutely abborhent i can't even look in the mirror.

no, i'm not exaggerating.

They finish, i pay the $20 and then race home before anyone can see.

It always leads to me standing in front of the mirror with scissors, trying to salvage whatever hair i have left. Desperately trying to coax my hair into some manageable state.

I know, it's all my fault. How hard would it be to tell them no, that's not right or what i want?

But no, I'm too dang nice i guess. I just don't want to hurt anyones feelings!

So here i sit. With botched bangs and unever layers.

feeling pretty ridiculous.

which i deserve, i suppose.

Mexican honeymoon

First of all, I had no idea where Steven was taking me. He kept it a secret for months! Impressive? I'd say yes.

So after our wedding luncheon, he finally told me. A cruise, to the Mexican Rivera. I died. Neither of us had been on a cruise before, so it was going to be a new adventure for both of us :)

We stayed Friday night in Salt Lake City because our cruise wasn't leaving till Sunday. And because Steven is the most amazing and thoughtful husband ever, he took me to Disney on Ice at the Delta Center... Or Energy power plant... Or whatever they are calling it these days.

He knows how much I love Disney, so he had bought tickets for later that night. And let me tell you what, that show was AWESOME. The skaters are incredible, and the show was just plain magic. (duh.)

The next morning we caught our flight to Long Beach, California and went shopping for some last minute essentials in the city. And when I say city, I mean thug-town-gansta-ghettoville... I might have been a little freaked out. I had never seen a more crazy Walmart.

But, we did survive. Barely.

We caught a shuttle to the port the next morning and boarded onto the Carnival Splendor. Checking in wasn't too fun, but we were pretty excited to finally be on the ship... annnd of course have lunch at the all you can eat buffets. Bonus.

On Tuesday we got to Cabo San Lucas. The weather was 90+ degrees and the water was sooo clear and warm. It was heaven. And having Steven speak spanish fluently was so helpful. And attractive. We were able to get such good deals on everything from the locals!

The first day there we were able to get a boat to go snorkeling and to a beach. The water was so clear you could see at least 30 feet down, and the fish were so cool and brightly colored.

We were gettin' ready.

Steven and our cruise ship...

We might have not brought any sunscreen.... or even bothered to get some until the third day out in the sun. um yeah, ouch. And stupid.

They had a baby lion. A REAL one. I might have freaked. And begged to Steven to see it every time we walked by. He had to convince me that it's not worth $25 just to hold a lion and get a picture with it. Agree to disagree.

Later that day we rented a little scooter bike to ride around the city of Cabo. We definitely got lost a couple of times, and were almost run over multiple times, but it was so fun to see how the locals live. And to see the real Cabo, not just the tourist part. We found a little hole-in-the-wall authentic mexican restaurant to have lunch at, and I totally forgot to take a picture! But the chicken quesadilla I got was surprisingly amazinggg.

Our second day in Cabo we got out early to go and find someone to take us parasailing. I couldn't believe how relaxing it was! So quiet and peaceful up there, and so so warm! It was definitely one of my favorite things.

We took the scooter again and talked to a local guy to find a beach that wasn't swarmed with tourists. We ended up finding a pretty gorgeous one.

...and one that was completely empty. Yes, it's for real.

Needless to say, we spent quite awhile there soaking up some rays and enjoying it all.

I think we both would go back to Cabo in a heartbeat.

Our third day we had traveled over night to a much more tropical place called Puerto Vallartas.

We took a little ferry boat to a private beach, and on the way got to see a bunch of wild dolphins and do some more snorkeling!

It was another day of relaxing in the sun and pure amazing-ness I think I want to move to mexico and just be a beach bum.

The last couple of days on the ship were at sea, and we were able to spend them doing blissfully nothing.

Our days consisted of wake up, eat, take nap, eat, watch movie, nap, eat, repeat. You don't get to do that do often. It was lovely.

I think we had a hard time coming back to reality. Thank goodness, we came back to Thanksgiving break and wedding presents. I wish i would have taken a picture of our tv room piled with presents, because it was unbelievable. People were way to generous to us!

I did get a video of my brother sam in the trash, which may give some idea of how crazy it was...

We basically spent the whole week getting everything put away, organized, and livable.

But oh my, how fun it was. Being married is the best thing EVER. Love it.