Go Cards!

So, we had a Sa-weet trip to Arizona for Dan & Krystal's wedding! Read about the wedding here if you haven't yet.  It was awesome.

But, aside from the wedding, we also got to hang out with Mike's awesome friends, Mario & Holly.  

Oh yeah, and their baby Max.  He's a stud.

Oh he was so stinkin cute, and he LOVED Mike's bald head.  Maybe more than I do.  Which is a lot.

Anyway, I really enjoyed staying with Mario & Holly.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was when Mike and Mario went golfing and me and Holly got pedicures... because I really love having girl time!  And I haven't had a pedicure in FOREVER.

Another fun night was getting to see the first half of the Globe vs. Miami football game... Before we got rained out and almost struck by lightning!!  Unfortunately, Miami (Mario's alma mater) lost... But it was still a fun game.

At the game!

We also ate out at Claim Jumpers as a celebration with Dan & Krystal a couple nights before the wedding.  There were tons of friends there as well, and some pasta that was definitely cooked in waaaaaay too much wine and I think I caught a buzz... :P

Behold, the awesome quality of the iPhone 3g camera phone.

Also, Krystal & I look like midgets in this picture.

Going to the Arizona Cardinals game was one of the sweetest things ever!!  

This is their stadium... it's the bomb.com 

So we had to park far away and take a bus to the stadium, where security was HIGH since it was 9/11.

This is my SUPER SEXY man!

At this point I realized that all the hershey's kisses I had stolen from the wedding as a treat to eat during the game had melted in my purse... to make a huge chocolate blob of keys, wallet, checkbook, earrings, chapstick, etc... It was SO GROSS.  

Phoenix is too hot. 

And... SO IS THIS JERSEY!

In honor of BYU Alumni, Max Hall. Hopefully he recovers and the Cards pick him back up again!  Go Max!

After the game, Mike is bursting with pride because the Panthers lost... and Cam Newton (Auburn's old QB) is now the Panther's QB and Mike just really really really wanted to see him lose.  A lot.

And Mario, with his souvenir cup.  We got Cotton Candy, Hot Dogs, Sodas... It was great.

Arizona was AWESOME!  It was fun to see Mike's old friends and make them my new ones! :)

And I finally have an NFL team now - GO CARDS!

Update!

I'm waaaaaay behind on this blog!

But... I know that catching up can sometimes be futile, so I'm just going to keep at it and as I get time I'll update on the rest of the Utah & Arizona adventure!  

Life is good.  

Today I had a much needed conversation with a friend whom I haven't talked with in a long time.  It was SO nice to talk to someone who related to me, and definitely an answer to a prayer.  Being away from Utah makes me cherish those connections and relationships with people, and realize the most meaningful ones are the ones that withstand distance.  And the real friendships are the ones that you can go without speaking to someone for months at a time, but when you do talk to them, your friendship picks up right where it left off.  I really love that.

Also, I FINALLY have decided on a school and a degree program for my time here in Hawaii.

drumroll.... Wayland Baptist University!

So, that's the news in my excitingly boring life.  Stay tuned for more ... :P

"I love a good wedding!! Drinks all around!"

It has been a very eventful past couple of days!!

There is so much to update on what's been going on - prepare to be inundated with the events of the past few weeks!

Mike and I have been on vacation in Arizona/Utah for Dan & Krystal's wedding and to see all our friends and family.  I can honestly say I've never had a better trip than this.. Just love my husband and taking a break and getting to spend all this time with him has been such a blessing.

We came back for Dan & Krystal's wedding.  They got married on September 10, 2011 in the Mesa, Arizona temple.  Krystal was so BEAUTIFUL (seriously, one of the prettiest brides I have ever seen!) and the reception was so fun.  I LOVED the bright colors - she had orange and yellow.  It was sweet! 

We got together the day before the wedding to help set up all the decorations - it was at the church that Krystal lived by.

That's my handsome man carrying in some of the decorations.  There were a ton of those things!  That trailer in the background was full of them.



That's us.. hard at work. :)

Mike was tempted to steal all the frosting for the cupcakes, because he might be obsessed with frosting... but eventually his conscience won him over and he left it there... maybe only a bite or two was missing.

Krystal had gone through the temple that morning and received her endowments.  It was fun to see her and Dan together.

AND this was the FIRST time I have met my Father in law!  So that was fun too.  Mike is trying to be as tall as he is in this photo..

We finally got everything done and parted ways again until the next day.  Mike's two sisters, Mindy and Amy, flew in from Georgia and Texas and they were a RIOT.  They were so much fun, and this is the first time the four siblings have been together in fifteen years!!!  What an awesome experience. 

While Dan & Krystal were getting sealed, Mike and I got to spend some time with Mindy and Amy.  It was a great chance to get to know them!  Finally, Dan and Krystal came out of the temple...

SO beautiful.  One of our favorite couples.  :)

Then we took lots of photos in the hot Phoenix sun.. It was BLAZIN!  Lots of squinty eyes, but I think a lot of them turned out great!  Here are a few of my favorites -

FYI, that skirt was really puffy and hard to figure out where her legs were, so that was a tricky shot!  But those are the Bridesmaids dresses, and I think they are AWESOME!

All the groomsman.  Casey, Mike, Dan & Mario.  Mario let us stay at his house the entire time we were in AZ for the wedding - Love him and his cute family!  What  handsome guys!  Especially the bald one!

This is Holly and Max - the other part of the family we stayed with in Coolidge.  Some of my new favorite people in the world!  Holly is the sweetest momma and Max is SO adorable. More to come in future posts about them! 

Here is a pic of all the in-laws!  This picture pretty much sums up the extent of my new family! (Besides Mindy & Amy's family ... but still,  you get the idea)

Cutting the cake ... :)

What a great wedding.  Congrats Dan & Krystal!!

Rise & Shout! and ... Roll Tide!

Saturday was pretty much the perfect day.

College Football started up again!

Since we are in Hawaii, the games are ridiculously early for us, which is okay, but sometimes it's hard for me to get out of bed in the morning... 

It's a lot easier when Mike comes running in the room yelling, "Wake up, wake up!  Utah State is beating Auburn!"  Then I jump out of bed like I just got subbed in off the bench from a basketball game, because who wants to miss the greatest upset of all time?

Unfortunately, and by a major stroke of luck, Auburn came back for the win... But that's okay, because Bama rolled over Kent State and BYU scraped by with a win against Ole Miss!  Our second SEC win in the history of BYU football.  We still have a lot of work to do, hopefully our offense shapes up a little and we have a great season being independent!

Since both our teams won, we were pretty happy campers all day! :)

And we finally got to use the groupon that Mike's Mom gave us for parasailing!  It was so wonderful!

So much fun!  :D

School!

I really should be cooking dinner, the missionaries are coming over in just a while to eat.. But I am too excited I had to get a little out on my blog!

Today I finally figured out what I am going to do for my degree while I am here on this Island! 

I am going to the University of Phoenix

I will graduate in May 2013

 with a degree in HealthCare Administration!

Let me tell you what... it feels SO good to be going to school with a specific degree in mind -

and a date that you will get there.

And I only have to go to school one night a week to make this happen, so I can continue working full time!

Yay for school! 

Paddle Boarding / Pearl Harbor Adventure!

Last Saturday Mike & I both had work off...

and football season hasn't started yet ...

so we decided to go Paddleboarding!

We woke up REALLY early and went on base to meet up with our little tour group.  We all loaded into a van and drove out to the North Shore.   When we got there we had a short instruction session and then we were off!  I was really nervous that I would be super bad and slow the whole group down, but I did alright!  

Mike was really speedy.  He almost took out a sea turtle with his oar, it was pretty funny!  The tour started out in the ocean, but then we veered off into this river and it was BEAUTIFUL.  

Paddleboarding is really peaceful and relaxing.

Mmmm-hmmmm.

After we were done Paddleboarding, we still had the afternoon and we've been wanting to go visit Pearl Harbor.  We spent a few hours there as well, enjoying learning more about the stories and feeling inspired by the sacrifice.

Two of Mike's relatives were killed in the attacks - we found their names on the wall in the memorial - D.J. Lakin and J.J. Lakin.

Behind us is the recovered anchor from the USS Arizona.

And... I just really really love the expression Mike went with for this photo. :)

Love having days off to explore with my best friend!