Pre Christmas

So one of the things that I really have loved the last few days is just getting ready for Christmas to get here. That's always most of the fun I suppose tho huh? Brandon and I have actually loved getting to spend our whole day together just shopping, planning, and all the fun activities. I thought I would throw up a few pics before Christmas gets here. *speaking of being with Brandon, I have a quick side note story. Last night while we were out shopping we stopped at Carl's Junior for a quick bite to eat. The guy who took our order was ridiculous. He was wearing stickers all over his face like a little kid and kept goofing off with his friends while taking our order. So we sat down to wait for our food and after about 15 min we asked another girl where our food was since the place was completely empty. Turns out he had given our food away to his friends who had left a couple minutes earlier. I couldn't believe it. I mean who does that? The girl came over and gave us the # to the general manager so we could complain about him since it happens all the time she says. I was so mad last night saying that "people like him didn't deserve jobs in this economy." How rude huh! I was all ready to call the manager but when I woke up this morning I couldn't bring myself to call and get someone fired. I mean what if he has no dad and his mom is a drunk and he's just trying to save money for college and get a new life? Unlikely but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. It's christmas afterall! Anyway, my first pic is over at Ben and Al's house at a Christmas dinner. Kathy made us these cute new aprons. Aren't they adorable?

We also got to cut down our Christmas Tree again this year! We took up the snomobiles and found a real beauty. Brandon was our tape measure here, we decided it was perfect and chopped it down. I love having a real tree that smells so good and it's only $10 for a tree tag! The only bummer is it seems every time we set it up and start decorating I always find holes in it everywhere and I can never make it look quite like all those beautiful fake ones! Pictures of the finished product to come....

Paul Bunyon here....

The other great thing about Christmas is that you get to meet up with fun friends you don't normally get to see. Shelley was in town to Hailey and I got to see her and cute little Thad. I wish that the little ones were in this pic since they're so precious. You'd just want to squeeze their little cheeks. Having girl time is always refreshing!

Go Jazz Go!

So I must admit that I wouldn't call myself the ultimate jazz fan, unlike my husband. I'm that wife who occasionally nags at the husband for watching every single jazz game on tv without fail and would maybe rather be watching some sort of chick flic. But when we get a chance to actually GO to a game, Im all over it. I love, love, love the Jazz at these times. I get caught up in the music, cheering, special little tricks by the jazz bear, the jumbotraun, and general enthusiasm of the crowd. And luckily, they won, which makes it even better. We got to go with my sister Breanna/Austin, and Brandon's brother and wife, Ben and Alyson. It was a blast, even if we were only sitting like 5 rows from the top! Here's the group:
It was actually Alyson's first time ever going to a jazz game so that makes it extra fun.

If you buy a full meal at Subway they give you a free voucher to get tickets "buy one get one free" and Brandon just told me yesterday that he already took the liberty of getting us another voucher so we can go to another game. Yeah!

Chuck E Cheese

So last weekend we babysat my aunt's kids for a couple nights and seriously had such a blast. We decided to take them to Chuck E Cheese's. I haven't been there in probably 10 years (well actually it was 7 years to be exact because that's where I had to go for my Senior Prom-uh!) Anyway I forgot how fun it is for little kids. It's such an exciting atmosphere with the music, games, pizza, parties, and prizes. I actually think Brandon had as much fun as the kiddos did. He'll be such a good dad:)

Oh my gosh, Markelle was so excited about her new rings. It was so cute. The girls got jewelry, the boys got blow up hammers. It's all the cooler when you get the prizes with your hard earned tickets of course.

On the way home we stopped by 7 different red boxes because we all wanted to see Toy Story so bad but none of them had it so we resorted to this little echo dome. I think we were in Sandy or Draper someplace? Anyway, when you stand in the middle it echo's. But the funniest part was that the kids were way more excited about catching all the moths fluttering by. We were there for like an hour catching moths...or butterflies as Markelle called them.

The boys actually thought it was funner to smash them with the new hammers. I love how boys are just boys and girls are girls. I think it's so fun.

I love that Brandon and I are both out of school right now to be able to actually live life. It's so awesome to not have to always say "oh sorry I have to study." We're excited for the holidays too because this year neither of us have to work Christmas Eve or Christmas day!

I love my gampa and my gampa loves me

Last week my dear, sweet grampa passed away. I've always hated the cancer word but it's a whole new story when it hits you personally. My grampa has been fighting this cancer for months now. He battled it well and has left a great legacy behind. We're blessed to know that he is free of any pain or suffering. We knew it was getting close when he was put on hospice so we were lucky enough to be able to spend some of his last moments with him. This particular day was extra special because he was awake, alert and interacting so much. I'll always remember it. We got to hear a few of his favorite jokes/phrases again and exchange endearing words. It was a tender mercy for our family.
Since my grandpa is a veteran he got to be burried at the veteran's memorial in Bluffdale. I was so proud of him. He got the gun salute and everything. It was such an honor.

After the graveside memorial my grandma requested that each of the grandkids pick a flower from his bouquet to remember him by. The whole thing was just so beautiful. The funeral was perfectly done. I can't even really remember being at any funerals before but I really think they are so beautiful, and peaceful. For the most part it was a happy day. Reminiscing and sharing memories of him and the great life he led.

Here's some of the grandkids with my grandma. I feel so lucky to have been the oldest grandchild having known my grandpa for 25 years. I got to learn from his example and enjoy his personality and gain a relationship with him. I'll always love my gampa!

I'm grateful for the knowledge that the gospel brings us about the plan of salvation. And I'm grateful for a family that loves and supports eachother especially throught hard times. I hope I can have a family just the same one day.

Frightmares

For Halloween we decided to go to Frightmares since we had a couple free passes. It actually turned out really fun...and scary too. But it was FREEZING. We got soaked from the rain but we hardly noticed, just kept treckin on cuz it was such a blast. I must say however that Lagoon isn't quite what it used to be. I remember as a kid being able to spend ALL day there loving it and the rides seemed so huge and awesome. And it was always the number one goal to meet a cute boy. Now it almost seems a little ghetto and there's probly only 5 rides that I actually enjoyed riding. One of them was surprisingly the bumber cars...Don't you love how Brandon always makes this same face in all the pics?? What a cute face it is.
We discovered these awesomely carved pumpkins were fake so that made us feel better about ours from last week.

We got chased around by these scary fellas with chain saws. And now I'm the one making the creepy face. Just trying to match the scary monsters I guess.

Here's our costumes for the night....we've decided that Halloween is like 100 times funner with little kids you can dress up with and enjoy it with. Maybe next year we'll have a costume party so we can dress up for real.

Here we are in one of the Haunted houses, it was obviously not that scary, just a bunch of "fog" that left us in coughing fits, if I get lung cancer one day it's cuz of this fog I'm sure.

Skeleton Brandon....he always gets so ticked (as you can see here) that I wanna take so many pics. But now I have a good excuse that "it's for the blog." I wonder how long it will last?

It was sure a fun little day. Sometimes it's nice just to get to be together since we're both always working so much with the crazy shifts and all. Just a little side note that we actually got a free cruise today too! It was one of those "listen to our 90 min presentation and we'll give you a free trip" type of things. So we went. But good thing Brandon came cuz I just about gave in and bought the package. I had to make Brandon be the one to say no. He's tougher than me. I just always start feelin so bad for the poor guy trying to make some commision and then I feel guilty for all his time we're taking and I start justifying why I can buy it. But once I get out of there and back to reality I'm sooo glad we didn't get suckered in. We can either go to the Mexican Riviera or the Caribean. Any recommendations?

Happy Halloweenie

The other night we got some most perfecet pumpkins from Brandon's parent's garden so we got a little carving kit and got to work. Dontcha think they turned out great! I pooped out about half way through mine but forced myself to continue. It took forever. Mine's the one on your far right and Brandon's is next. He was a real trooper since he had worked a 12 hr day and we didn't even start til after 10:00. Here's the carving partners, at first I couldn't figure out what Jen was doing then I looked at what was in her hand, silly girl.

I had to put a close up of Austin and Breanna's pumpkin because it was the best one, can you tell who it is?

Kevin from the office! Love it. Breanna's boyfriend made some horchata that was so very delicious. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's a creamy, sweet, cinnamon ricey milk. I hadn't had it since my mission and it actually brought back some fun memories. Brandon loved it too. It was a perfect little treat. I feel like I need to start learning how to actually cook stuff!!

LAS VEGAS!!

My family just got back from Vegas yesterday and it was such a blast! My parents were celebrating their anniversary and had the rest of us come join them for a couple days. They also have a foreign exchange student from Brazil and she really wanted to see Vegas while she's here. It was really good being with the fam, and Brandon and I always love a get away!

This was my 1st time gambling!! I discoved that I love the slots, and Brandon actually won 25 buckaroos.

I was telling a gal at work about my plans to go to Vegas and she asked me "why would you go to Vegas, how is that even fun for you?....knowing we don't smoke, drink, party, etc. But I had to just laugh because I've actually been a lot and it's such a blast. We swam and relaxed, shopped at the outlets, walked the strip to see the free stuff, played games in the hotel, rode the coasters, and saw a show. It's the perfect get away. This time, we saw The Blueman group. Now I have to say that it was funny and entertaining, but I would never go again. I thought for how famous they are, they would and could have done a lot more with their act. But we had a good time and had really good seats!

Our favorite free thing to see is the fountain at the Bellagio. We spent over an hour there one night. I just think it's incredible what they do with it! It's my sister Kaylie's favorite and since she's on a mish in Brazil we missed her oh so much.

The Coke Factory has samples of coke products from all over the world. Some are nasty, some are delish so we did a taste test.

Thanks to my folks for a great trip, we love being with you guys and the fam!

Oregon Coast

In nursing school I seriously had the very best study group ever. I had such good friends and I wouldn't have survived school without them. There were seven of us and we had such a blast...maybe too much fun actually. So for the last two years of school we've been planning this awesome trip up to Oregon where Megan is from. It was a blast!

We went to this gorgeous waterfall...

Ate this delicious crab. We've never been known to be big seafood fans but Doug, Flor, and Jen caught this right out of the ocean and it was sooo good. I wish I had a pic of the table AFTER we were done eating, we were all covered in crab.

Went to this Sturgeon Fish Hatchery. In case you don't know what a Sturgeon is, here's a glimpse for you. It's a fish that's pretty much larger than life.

Just the gals...

The oregon coast is full of little tide pools so when it's low tide you can see all of the starfish, sea anenamies, crabs, all kinds of cool stuff. This is a starfish we found....

We went to this aquarium and saw some cool little creatures. Here's the jellyfish, I could have watched them for hours....

Floated on tire innertubes down this beautiful river bank...

Stayed in this cute cabin near the coast....

Made this bonfire on the ocean.....ok on the sand. (I know some of you wouldn't have been able to resist saying "you can't build a fire on the water Shelissa" and felt like it was a funny remark so I just saved you the embarrassment....)

Visited the pier here...notice the cool bridge?

Watched these sea lions.... or were they seals? Who knows.

Spent the day at the beach having hot chocolate. I know they don't go together but it was so cold yet so beautiful so we stayed.

Last but not least I just had to show you this cute of pic of this cute guy. Look at him chopping this wood in his too small board shirt from highschool:) Just a side note, Brandon makes the best fires I've ever seen. Thank goodness he's an eagle scout.

Thanks so much to my wonderful study buddies and great friends, for helping me pass and for an incredible trip. Love you guys!!