Todd Life

Twin Rivers Combined Test

2012-01-17T08:19:00.000-08:00

So this past weekend my barn traveled down to Paso Robles for the Twin Rivers Combined Test. For you non-horsey people a combined test is Dressage (kind of choreographed dancing?) and Stadium Jumping (jumping in an arena over jumps that can be knocked down).

Anyhow it was such a fun weekend. This is Zalsa’s first time doing a combined test and mine as well. Anyhow we ended up leaving at 5am on Saturday and arrived around 11am. We unpacked got the horses settled in and then went out for some Cross Country schooling. Cross country is jumping out in natural footing over immovable jumps. Zalsa is turning into a cross country machine. She was really good and only refused two fences, a scary coop and then a ditch. She is such a good girl.

Sunday was the show day and we started with Dressage. I lunged her some, so she wouldn’t be as hyper and we warmed up and went in for our test. She was SO good for her first time. I was a little worried about my position since I tend to lean forward, and a little worried about her head being a bit high…. But it all worked out, I got a bit tense towards the end which then translated to Zalsa being a bit tense, but we ended with a REALLY good score of 33!!!! Low thirties can carry you to a win in three-day so I was very happy with her. Just think of the scores she can get if I get her stretching down and me sitting more upright! Yay!

So then to stadium. She was pretty pooped by this point since she had done dressage only an hour before and had schooled cross country for two hours the day before. She did excellent in the warm-up with the non-scary jumps that were brown…. Then in the arena the scary jumps got the best of her and we had a rail and a refusal… but worst of all I got a bit frazzled and ended up jumping the wrong fence, oops! So we got eliminated for that… But then a couple hours later we got to try it again. This time with the fences at a bigger height. We ended up with one rail and one refusal, but I was happy about it. She was such a good sport for all of it and I learned a WHOLE lot this weekend.

I absolutely am loving watching Zalsa’s progress. Dani has been such an amazing trainer and I love all the girls at the barn. I can definitely say I lucked out with the horse, the trainer, and the barn! Yay for me!

stadium warm up

Cross Country schooling

Cross country schooling

What a cute face!

Does everyone like the lightening bolt I left on her butt??

Little miss Kiley

2011-12-21T06:39:00.000-08:00

So Kiley got to get experience something pretty awesome on Monday night. She got to sing in from of 21 thousand people with David Archuleta! She currently rehearses with David’s voice coach and was asked to sign in the David Archuleta concert this last Monday. Bryan and I weren’t able to make it out but got a chance to talk with her last night. She said it still hasn’t kicked in that she got to sign on stage with him…. I guess she was pretty nervous, but when we asked her if her voice was shaky….she said no… so I am guessing she did awesome! She is such a talented little girl…. Her singing voice is just so spectacular!!! Anyhow I just had to get a shot of her with her Christmas present from us on…. and of course her new glasses! Carla also sent me some photos of the concert…. Enjoy!

so tuckered out at the end of the night, but still in her David sweater! hahaha

Christmas time!

2011-12-20T08:07:00.000-08:00

So the holidays are almost here! Too many things to get done, not enough time….. Well Bryan and I have been keeping busy this holiday season with some decorating, traveling, holiday parties, soccer, and of course some horseback riding.

My Mom and I decorated most of the house this year while Bryan was in Vegas in November. We put up the Christmas village which normally goes up at my parents house….but my Mom insisted that it go up at our house…. Guess she just doesn’t want to have to deal with all the taking it down… it really is fun to put it up and such a pain to take it down… Anyhow the place is officially decorated. Bryan and I went and got the tree a few weeks back and he decorated it all himself!

We were able to make it out to Utah for Thanksgiving and it was so nice to spend some time with Bryans family. Time with the Todd’s is always a blast, but the time always goes too fast. We got to spend about a week there and it only seemed like a few days. Hopefully we can make it out there again soon!

Zalsa and I

Christmas picture of the barn
Turkeys in the side lot....there were 33 this day.... Bryan and I caroling....hahah Kumo enjoying the new Christmas decorations that are sort of invading his perch

And the decorating begins

2011-11-19T12:28:00.001-08:00

Slight remodel

2011-10-25T14:02:00.003-07:00

So ever since Bryan and I bought the house we have been full of remodeling, upgrading the house. We fell in love with the crown molding in the house, but never really understood why the builder didn’t put in all over the house. The room that really stood out for being strange was the formal dining room…. No crown molding?!?!? That’s just crazy! Anyhow we were missing molding in the entry way and hallway as well…. So we found a remodeling company in the area and got an estimate and decided which items to tackle. We choose to do the painting the family and dining rooms, molding in the entry, hallway and dining room and we opted for wainscoting in the dining room. I have always LOVED wainscoting and wanted it in at least one room in the house. Anyhow here are the before and after pictures…. Both rooms turned out amazing and the crown molding matched seamlessly with the original molding in the rest of the rooms!

So... we bought a horse!?!?!?!

2011-10-25T14:02:00.001-07:00

So in July I was anticipating my transition to my new team at Intel. I moved laterally in the company and as a result got back my free time in the evenings and on the weekends. I was wondering what I was going to do with all this new found time, and decided I might just take some riding lessons. Well I took some lessons at a facility in Granite Bay, and eventually got in contact with a girl I had ridden with in Pony Club growing up. Well I totally lucked out! I immediately clicked with Dani and started riding at her facility in Granite Bay about 5 times a week. I helped her out by exercising some of her horses and got a chance to ride one of her horses she had for sale. I immediately fell in love with this horse. Her name is Zalsa and she is a 7 year old Dutch Warmblood. She had a foal last year and got a late start under saddle. Dani got her in June and she had very little time under saddle. So when I started riding her, she was still very green (inexperienced). She had some initial trust issues, but she is such a sweet girl…. Very willing to try her hardest. Well we have decided to start training her for Three Day Eventing. We started jumping her at the end of August and she has been loving it ever since. I have been able to take her cross country schooling a few times and she is turning out to be a brave little mare! Anyhow this last weekend I went out to Star Vaughn with Dani and three other students of Dani’s. It was a great day… got Zalsa over all the fences, which is a HUGE accomplishment for such a green horse, especially since we only really started jumping her a little over a month ago! So here are the pictures from this past weekend:

check out the lightening bolt on her butt! yeah!

Visiting Samantha

2011-10-25T11:23:00.001-07:00

So I was able to visit Samantha at the beginning of September. I met Samantha while attending ASU and instantly became friends. I have many fond memories at her parents’ house in Scottsdale and love spending time with her family. After leaving ASU we have maintained our friendship with *almost* yearly visits. Last time I saw her was March 19, 2010 when she got married to Jonathan! Since then she has been living in England since that is where Jonathan is from. Anyhow so I got to visit her and got to know her husband a little more. It was a wonderful weekend of relaxing and catching up. Just wish it was a little longer L I miss you already Samantha!

Summer update!

2011-09-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

So Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Things have been super busy lately with Summer in full swing! Here are some recent happenings:

Bryans stuff:

So Bryan has been super busy with Softball, Soccer and Golf. He has been in these three leagues all summer and since I have officially moved teams at Intel, I am now able to attend some of these games. Bryan is really improving in his soccer skills! He has been playing goalie lately in the league games and even his touch is improving! I need to get some pictures at the next game!!!

Bryans good friends got a puppy yesterday.... here is a picture Bryan just sent me... they went home and played with the pup during lunch!

Golfing:

So my parents have been in town for most of the summer and have been golfing like crazy. Bryan and I have been able to golf with them on a few weekends and are loving it! We are gearing up for this coming weekend since we will be going to Pebble beach with my parents for their wedding anniversary. We are so excited!

Stuff around the house:

So shortly after we moved in we bought a nice dining room table. No chairs, just the table. Well it’s been about a year and we still didn’t have any chairs. Bryan and I are very picky about chairs and the print and we just could never find one that both of us liked, until we saw this one below. We totally love them and can’t wait to paint the dining room one of the shades of color on the chairs! Yay!

Kumo:

So Kumo has had a pretty posh summer. He has been chasing turkeys in the backyard, whining at bunnies during Bryan’s softball games, and being a lazy bum at my parents house while we are at work…..

Kumo staring at the turkey in the tree
this is what he looked like after my Dad has just finished petting him...what a wierdo!
Do you see the bunnies?

Horses:

So as some of you know I grew up riding horses. I had a pony growing up and got a Morgan horse when I was about 9. I loved it! However high school came around and between school, soccer and boys I ended up dropping the riding all together. I always knew I would eventually come back to it. So now that I am done moving around for college and am planning on being in one place for a while, I decided to pick it back up! So I have been riding a bunch lately! Seems like I picked right back up where I left off! I am riding at a friend’s place. Her name is Danielle and I rode with her in Pony Club when I was younger. She is just great! I am so lucky that she is letting me exercise some of her horses and am loving all the lessons I am taking. I have decided I LOVE jumping and really want to get back into Three-Day Eventing!

Photo of Zalsa and I...i love her!
Photo of Dani jumping!!!!

My friend Nikki:

So I am totally missing my friend Nikki…. I want to go to Tanner and go walking with the dogs! Hopefully we can nail out a trip to Utah soon and I can get to see her! So I just couldn’t resist posting just one little photo of her cute little pup pup. She breed her female a while back and has been hoping to sell the puppy. Well just this week he got an owner. They are naming the cute little red guy “Kuma”, which means bear in Japanese…. So sweet…

fireplace before and after

2011-07-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

So today I am working from home because our fireplace is getting painted...it looks 100% better now that its done..... you can't really tell but the before color was really green.... we aren't really sure why...

BEFORE:

AFTER

kumo loves the all house fan

2011-07-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

I woke up last night to Kumo sniffing away.....I turned on the light and this is what I see...
he loves the all house fan :)

Fourth of July weekend!!!

2011-07-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

So far this weekend has been pretty eventful! We went to the Folsom Rodeo this weekend with our good friends Cesar and Natasha. It was really fun, but the first hour we were all so hot. Thankfully the sun went down and we were able to cool down. Sunday my parents came over for dinner and I cooked them some Salmon, parmesan risotto and green beans. It was a yummy meal. Then today Bryan and I made a trip to green acres to pick up some plants. Here are some pictures from the weekend. Tonight we are heading to Natasha and Cesars for a little fourth of July paaarrrrtttyyyy.

Here is the waterfall finally working!!!!

Bryan planted some elfin thyme right along the concrete edge, It looks like grass, but you don't have to cut it! We are hoping it takes well to that spot.
I planted some sweet potato vines along the top of the retaining wall. They are the same two plants that are taking over my pot. I can't wait until they are big enough and cascading down the wall!!!

My pot flourishing!

Bryan re-planted his pot and it looks fabulous!

I only got one pictures from the Rodeo....and its of Cesar holding Natasha's purse...it was so funny, he was turning away from the camera to put it down... :)

much needed update

2011-05-15T11:44:00.001-07:00

Finally, the much needed update post! So thing have been really crazy lately… my work schedule has been suffocating me lately, and that is an understatement. It is now official I will be moving to another group at work later this summer and I am counting down the days. Here is the fun stuff that has been happening since my last major post.

1. Hail storm…. So much that it looks like snow?!?!?! Yup that is right. This storm was short but very loud. The thurder was so load the house felt like it was shaking. It hailed like crazy for about 5 minutes and then stopped. This is what we were left with… pretty cool huh?!?

front yard:
backyard - right side

backyard - left side

2. Some accessories for the backyard….. oh no the backyard is not done… don’t get me started on that topic….Anyhow last weekend Bryan and I decided to go out an accessorize our back door. We have this large patio space to the right of our backdoor and it basically collects shoes. We decided it was time to liven in up with some pots and a nice storage bench. It was so fun running around the nursery picking out pots and plants. Bryan I decided to each do one pot. So we ran around each picking flower, it was so fun to watch Bryans decision making process. He is so cute! This is the result of the weekend trip to Green Acres.

Bryans pot:

my pot:

pots with the storage bench:

3. Our patio furniture finally came in, of course right after we had visitors Anyhow its looking fabulous and we seriously can’t wait until the rest of the yard is done. (Seriously when will it be DONE?!?!?!....ahhhh!!!) Bryan and I are really both liking how its turning out, we just want it to be over so we can start working on our little mini projects.

4. Nikki comes to visit for a week! Oh gosh it was so nice having Nikki here. I had about a week off from work in the April and my friend Nikki from Salt Lake came out to visit. We had such a great time just relaxing and catching up. The weather finally warmed up for here for her visit and we spent most of the time relaxing and playing with the pups. Nikki brought her lovely little Makoa, who I totally adore. He is such a cuddle bug! Anyhow we made one large trip while she was in town. I organized a group of Klee Kais to meet up in San Francisco. So the Saturday while Nikki was here we made the trip. It was so much fun to meet a whole bunch of Klee Kais and get to meet some wonderful owners. The trip was a total success! We ended up having 12 Klee Kais in total. I really do miss not living close to Nikki. We get along so well and she just constantly cracks me up. In a perfect world she would be my neighbor. It was really hard when she left… made me miss her even more L Which reminds me I should start planning my next trip to visit her. We are going to try and visit each other at least once a year.

Makoa sleepin on Nikkis foot

the pups on Kumos favorite perch

cuddling pups

Makoa wanted to cuddle with Kumo all weekend, this was probably the closest it came to it so we had to get a picture

Me and Kumo playing with little Rusty at the meetup

The group picture at the end of the playdate

sorry sorry

2011-05-08T23:26:00.000-07:00

So I have been super SUPER swamped at work lately that it has offically consumed my life. I promise to post some pictures soon. Have to blog about Nikkis visit here and the Klee Kai meetup. Gosh it was so nice having Nikki here, made me miss her that much more when she left :( Also have to blog about the backyard and the recent happenings :)

Todds come to visit!!

2011-04-03T13:39:00.000-07:00

family pictures, notice kumo jumping in the background! hahahah

final look with the new grass

2011-04-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

So this is what I came home to yesterday.... too bad we have to stay off it for two weeks :(

GRASSSSSS

2011-03-31T11:08:00.000-07:00

Grass is going in todayyyY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bryan couldn't find kumo this morning.... look where he was... cuddling with Trev :)

Some decorations for the house

2011-03-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

So any many of you know Bryans parents are coming this next weekend and Nikki is coming the following weekend. We are trying to get some things done around the house before then.... So this weekend we went out and got some things for the little alcoves and tables in the house as well as a painting for our bedroom. We have these large shelves flanking our family room that have been empty up until now.... granted we were only able to fill one out of the eight shelves, but its a start!

painting in our bedroom

Entry way table, got some new flowers to liven it up a bit!

Here is a before and after of our sofa table in the family room. We made it a little more adult with the flowers

Picture easels to display the scrapbooks

This one came pre-made . This is the alcove in our bedroomThis one Bryan and I actually designed... we went to Michaels and picked out the arrangement and vase... it was really fun to see we could actually make something that looks rather high end... this is the alcove at the end of our hallway

patio cover and plants

2011-03-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

The bones of the patio cover is finally done.... They are going to stain it and put in ceiling fans. We are having vines grow on the cover to give us shade in the summer and sun in the winter... Its going to be stained a very dark brown color, almost black, its will look really nice up against our very tan house :)

Yes, we finally have SOME plants!!!!!!!!!!!

Klee Kai meetup!

2011-03-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

So my friend Nikki is coming to visit in April (which I am WAYYY excited about) and I have been trying to get a couple of people together for a Klee Kai meetup... well today I officially have 14 people on the list!!!!

I am SOOOO excited... ahhhhh!!!!!!!!
the internet is a great place sometimes, oh and email! So awesome!

latest landscape photos

2011-03-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

Here are the latest photos from over the weekend...enjoy!

Sneak peek of patio furniture

2011-03-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

I am not going to say what we got... but here is a sneak peek! Its supposed to take 5-8 weeks.... so that puts it being delivered about march 28- april 18th.... Hopefully its coming sooner rather than later

backyard update pictures

2011-02-28T18:06:00.000-08:00

SO this is what Bryan and I came home to today! The patio cover is coming along!

Valentines and Nails

2011-02-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

So Bryan totally surprised me on Valentines Day. I got home and was stressing about work and Bryan just smiles and pulls this box and card out for me. He got me some chocolate covered strawberries and a card. He can really be a sweetie sometimes! We then vegged out the rest of the night and watched two episodes of Lie to Me and promptly feel asleep on the couch. I don't know why we are so tired lately!

On a much different note, I have made the conversion from acrylics to this new gel from OPI (axxium). Its basically a gel polish that stays on for 2 weeks with no chips or dulling. I am toally loving it! Those are my real nails people! I have never had my real nails this long before. I am totally in love with the whole thing.

Clock for our family room!!

2011-02-09T19:03:00.000-08:00

So this is our latest upgrade to the family room. We absolute love this sofa table we got and figured we needed something to go above it. It took us a while to find one that we liked, and it finally arrived yesterday! Bryan was such a wonderful husband and put it up for me today. I love it!!!! We are slowly but surely decorating and I am loving it so far!!!

kumos show for the workers

2011-02-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

So I am working from home today since basically I got up and worked every two hours last night. So I was in no mood to get dressed for work or deal with the commute. So anyhow I am just minding my own business working away on the couch and I look over to see this... Kumo sunning himself and giving the workers in the backyard a nice view of his underside, hahah. What a dork!

my view of him from the couch

view after sneaking up to him

sneak peak of the backyard

2011-02-03T08:39:00.000-08:00

So I ahven't posted any pictures of the backyard because we just haven't taken any. Our Lanscaper is taking pictures of the project and all the stages so we haven't taken any ourselves. Well Bryan snapped these three photos over the weekend since everyone has been bugging us to see the progress. So here it is:

you can't really see it, but at the bottom of the photo is going to be this raised sitting area at the bottom of the stairs, this then leads down the the lower patio...

lower patio, the thing with the white pipe sticking out is going to the be the fireplace. The circles on the ground in the middle are the posts for the vine trellace. The blob of rocks on the left is our waterfall which I am WAY excited about! Cement will be going in next week :)

walkway to the upper lawn area

This past weekend

2011-02-01T14:08:00.000-08:00

So some of you know how much I have been working lately. Well this weekend I got a small break from the long hours and was able to enjoy some time off. Dustin and his two girls came to visit from Pleasanton. They loved Kumo. I didn't take any pictures this weekend, but Bryan got this on Sunday... They were playing go fish with Tanya :)

Whats been going on in 2011

2011-01-31T09:35:00.001-08:00

Hello 2011! Hi everyone. This year is going to be fun!!! We are still getting lots of stuff done around the house, from putting up paintings to getting furniture. Our landscaping is coming along nicely. We are on schedule to have a finished front and backyard by March 1st. I am thinking its going to be more like mid-March though with how slow this whole process has been. We started the landscaping project in September and Bryan and I can't wait until we are donnnneeeee!!!!

Some other exciting news along with the yard being done. We are having some visitors come in April and Bryan and I are very excited!!!! Bryans family is coming early April and my friend Nikki is coming out later in April :) Bryan and I both had birthdays this month, along with Kumo. Bryans birthday was fun! I surprised him by taking him rock climbing and it was really fun! For my birthday we ordered PFChangs and had a nice night in with my two best friends Jess and Tanya. Another fun thing we did this month was go to Intels Winter Ball. I am really lame and didn't get a lot of pictures so this is what I have on my camera phone for the month of January....

This is going to be our front yard fountain! Its huge, the top of the pot is about eye level

kumo somehow wrapped himself up in this blanket and then fell asleep
the day before my birthday my parents took us to dinner at my favorite resturant Hawk's!
kumo and bryan crashed on the couch

a typical night at home, fire, tv, naping with Bryan Kumo and Tanya...

Intels winter ball. Bryan was taking the picture

Happy 2011 Everyone!

2011-01-03T10:44:00.000-08:00

So I figured I would start this year off right. I am scrapbooking again! So excited. Carla showed me this really cool program online that I can use instead of designing my scrapbooks by hand. So I decided I would get my butt in gear and do the last two years. I don't have a ton of pictures from 2009 and 2010, but enough to make two books. I was putting if off becasue designing it by hand would have been really tough and time consuming, so I decided to use Carla mixbook software. Hopefully I can get these two books done before our anniversary in March. Bryan and I's Christmas break was wonderful. We were able to make it out to Utah to visit Bryan's family. We enjoyed our time there and I got my first white Christmas! We kind of did a Todd photo session and here are our family photos:

Happy Turkey Day!!!!

2010-11-25T16:13:00.001-08:00

UPDATE!!!

2010-11-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

So nothing terribly exciting has been happening over here besides some new house additions. I figured I should blog about something since I haven't blogged in forever!

The only remaining three plants in our front yard have decided its fall in all of like 5 days.... look how red they are! On a related note, landscaping is coming along. We are hoping for a completion of early next year.

But other places it looks like spring. For those of you who don't live here in northern california, winter brings green green green! The only season that is brown here is fall.
So before the time change this is what it looked like coming home. That is one of the entrances to our neighborhood. The clouds were always so pretty! But now I come home in the dark, its awful! :(

So as some of you know, we don't really like our front entry way. You come in the front door and you either have to go down to the garage or come up to the rest of the house. We changed the door shortly after moving in and added wall sconces. We are now to the point were we added an entry table and some paintings. I am liking the entry more and more every day! Bryan even picked out that lovely rug in the entry way.

Landscaping!

2010-09-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, we have started the landscaping of our yard. Here is the overall plan we have for our yard. The front yard is on the right with our driveway in gray. The house is more or less in the middle and is that large blank area.

We are in the process of making a few modifications. Work has already started on site. Yesterday I worked from home and a bunch of trees came down! It was so cool to see how quickly they worked :)

this is my 101 post!

2010-09-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

So in the last two weeks we have had some major changes around the house. We ordered some family room furniture at the beginning of July. Well we finally got it last weekend. The new pieces are the three seater couch, matching arm chair and ottoman and a sofa table. The family room is still in need of a coffee table, but we are making due in the mean time with our 1.5 seater ottoman. We aren't going to be leaving the 1.5 seater couch and ottoman in there forever, they actually go in the master bedroom but they are additional seating until we can find what to put over there by the piano. Here are some photos:

The other giant thing that happened was us getting window treatments. Its really fun to see all the new and interesting things we have been doing with the house. We decided on getting these dual cellular shades for most of the main living areas. They are really cool in the sense that they have a shear material on the top part and a dark chocolate on the bottom. You can choose to have the whole window shear or the whole window chocolate or halfway like we have here or anything in between, or you could have the whole shade up. We are loving the decision since I still really like being able to see out during the day but still wanted privacy. Its the best of both worlds! Here are some photos:

Bryan opted for some wood blinds in his office which turned out spectacular! They really make the room nice. They really do block out the light when you have them closed. I just really like them because it makes the room formal and a little masculine :)

We put these up in the bedroom months ago but I figured I would show them anyways. I was so proud of myself for picking the colors and putting them up. The only problem was I wasn't strong enough to screw the bolts all the way into the wall. So I showed Keven and Bryan and they told them if they liked them they have to finished screwing the bolts in. They wouldn't go in, I have no idea how Kev and Bry did it!

This is our dining room. We got a table a while back but still haven't managed to get chairs, good thing we have that breakfast nook area in the kitchen!

This is our upstairs family room. We have the couch facing in towards the house at the moment but we are eventually going to turn it around do its facing outside. We just haven't done it yet since this couch is huge and heavy and a sectional... its a beast to move!

This is our main guest room. So if you come to stay you are most likely going to be staying here. We really like this room since its our furniture from Salt Lake. We adding a comforter we got from Terry (my Mom's friend) and Bryan put up these lovely curtains!

another shot of our sectional, we love it. We can't wait to get a tv up here so we use this room more. This is going to be our main tv watching room once we get satellite and another TV that is :)

Yappy hour

2010-09-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

So last Wednesday Tanya invited me to go to Yappy Hour with her. It's like Happy hour but with dogs. It was so much fun. It was at this bar in Roseville with an outside patio area where everyone just let their dogs run. The bar had country line dancing inside and a couple of the dogs snuck in a couple of times including Kumo and Tanyas dog Duke. We met up with one of Tanya's neighbors husband who also has a dog. The car ride home was hilarious because all three dogs wanted to be in the back seat and they were all fighting over Aarons lap. As you can see Kumo basically won with all his growling and funny noises he makes. It so nice to have Tanya living close to me again, I forgot how good of a friend she is :)

Extremely Exciting News!

2010-09-01T14:55:00.001-07:00

We are getting our long awaited family room furniture this Saturday and our window converings next Friday. I cannot tell you how excited we are! We have been waiting 10 weekd for our furniture and 4 for our window treatments.... I hope we still like what we picked out! I will definately post pictures of before and after!

Last few weeks

2010-08-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

So these last week few weeks have been pretty exciting!

Front Door

We finally got out front door converted by Door Conversions . We had a solid wood door before and it was really nice, but our front entryway is pretty dark. So we decided to hire this company that comes out and fits your door for glass and wrought iron. It turned out wonderful and Bryan and I are so thrilled. It really does make it feel more airy in our entry way. We love it. Our front door is really tall, that is why it looks so skinny. It is actually a pretty wide door.

Bryans work

Bryan is officially done with training. He got his desk yesterday. He really is enjoying his job, especially since he gets to work with some pretty cool people. I should make him blog about this… because I do a horrible job. But long story short he is enjoying work, he will be getting assigned to a region starting November 1^st. He has some accounts now but won’t be getting assigned any big fish until Novemeber.

Woofstock
Tanya and I went to this thing called WoffStock . It was way fun. There were vendors and tons of people. I met some people with Huskies and of course everyone was like “ oh what kind of dog is that”. I don’t really mind because I like telling people about Kumo, but the questions they ask are always the same, how old is he, is he full grows, can he pull a mini sled, do they run away like Siberians….blahblahblah. Anyhow Tanya and I had a blast. Kumo and Duke did too. Kumo was so tired when he got home, here are pictures of his exhaustion. Tanya in the spirit of WoffStock got Duke a tattoo!

Duke

Landscaping

Bryan and I decided to get out front and backyard landscaped. The front yard was already landscaped but it needs a lot of love. We decided to take out the grass and put in a fountain. As for the backyard we are having a large grass area and an outdoor living space with a water feature and fire place. We finalized plans with our landscaper on Friday. We should have work starting at our house in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait for it to be done since we have no landscaping in the backyard as of now.

Other random stuff

My friend Cara got me an orchid and this is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago. It is having a hard time and so I asked out landscaping guy and he said to spritz it with water in the mornings and it will get better. We will see. So far three flowers have fallen off L I made some potstickers the other night and they were yummy so I took a picture of them and sent it to Bryans brother Trevor who had been living in Japan the last two years.

Decompression at Work

2010-08-23T15:15:00.001-07:00

So last week I got an email about decompression the cubicles in my building. I didn’t think much of it since I am new. I figured there is no way the new hires are going to get bigger cubes. My cube right now it fairly big. It’s about 6X9. I currently have my computer set up in the elbow to allow two separate work areas for me. The setup has worked great. My floor is kind of bare, and I don’t sit next to the rest of my team since they are all on floor 2. Floor 3 is mainly a couple of other teams and a bunch of new hires. Well I guess it’s my lucky day because since we have the room Intel is decompressing our cubes. Here is what is going to happen. See the photo below (grey is floor space, blue is desk space and the entrance is the opening on the top left). So I will have two options of where to set up my computer. Everyone I have talked to is going to put their computer up by the entrance to their cube for privacy. I am way excited. I guess this is going to happen within the next couple of weeks!

Trip to Utah and past few weeks

2010-08-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

So this last weekend we went out to visit Bryans family. His younger brother Trevor had just come home from a two year mission in Japan. It was so awesome to see him! I didn’t realize how much I missed him until this weekend. He has come back to the States a man with such confidence, its awesome! He has some awesome stories and insight to the Japanese culture. I love sushi and so I was loving everything he could tell me about Japan and the food and the culture. Bryans Aunt and Uncle from Texas came as well and brought their three kids. I haven’t seen them since the wedding so it was nice to spend time with them. Bryans Dad’s side of the family came into town on Sunday for Trevor’s talk in church and for lunch afterwards. Trevor’s talk was awesome; it was so nice to see him so happy and smiling. I wish the weekend was longer, but Bryan and I headed back to Sac late Sunday night.

Bryans Mom's Brothers family: Cooper, Abby, Kimbal, Avery, Shannon and Grant

Bryan and I with Trev!!!!!!!!!!

On a side note, my phone crapped out of me yesterday. I was already sleepy from traveling until late in the night and on top of that my phone dies. I did a system update and it wouldn’t turn back on. Well since I have the droid they didn’t have any in stock, and they later found they didn’t have any in the warehouse either. So long story short I will not be getting another phone until Wednesday or Thursday after work L I didn’t realize how much I use my phone and not for phone calls or texts. I use it for directions and the big ticket item is the alarm clock. I take naps in my car during lunch when I am sleepy and I couldn’t yesterday because I had no alarm clock. Silly me didn’t realize this until I was parked under a shaded tree with the seat back and the windows rolled…. So I didn’t get a nap L

fog in august......?

2010-08-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

So the weather has been a bit strange for the Sacramento area. Normally August is the hottest month with high 90s and 100s. Lately it has been high 80s with it getting into the 50s at night. It has been wonderful. I ran with Kumo this morning and it was nice and cool and sunny. When I left for work it was warming up and the sun was really shinning.... Well by the time I got to Folsom, which is about 30 minutes from our house it was this....

and on top of it 52 degrees. I hurried into work and put on my sweater I have at my desk...

friends/work/weekend/house/jobs so many new things going on with us!!!!

2010-08-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

Friends

So I have been re-connecting with a bunch of High School friends. It has been great! I have lived away from the Sacramento area for 7 years and coming home to all my friends has been amazing. Some of them I haven’t seen since graduation while others I have seen over Christmases and school breaks. It really is nice to have girls nights again and have people to shoot the breeze with. It’s also nice to catch up and see where everyone is at in their lives. We are all starting to feel like adults!

This weekend

This weekend we are going out to visit Bryan’s family. I am so excited. I haven’t seen his family since we moved into our house in July. Bryan’s brother Trevor is finally home! He served a two year mission in Sapporo Japan and came home last Friday. We are traveling out to Roosevelt Utah on Friday and staying until Sunday. I wish we could stay longer! We are going to their place for Christmas this year and I am excited, this will be my first Christmas with the Todds!!! Here is a picture from the last time I saw Trevor! We went to an amusement park in August 2008.

Bryans Job

So Bryan started at HP last week and he is loving it! He gets to work with people close to his age. He is going to be going inside Sales at HP and I am so proud of him! He really is enjoying work and will be in training for a while. He will get an account, meaning start real work on Nov 1^st. He is hoping for an eastern account so that he can start work at 6am and get off at 3pm! I am just so happy that both of us have jobs that we love!

My Work

So work has been going really good. I think my body is slowly adjusting to being at work 9 hours a day. I am definitely not having a hard time sleeping anymore. Have I told you how much I love Intel. Let me see, the benefits, the 401k matching, the working from home option, the free drinks, the free fruit, the casual dress, and the fun stuff I get to do at work every day. I am learning a ton. I wish I could learn quicker so I could be more of a help to my team, but there is so much to learn… In a nutshell I love it. Here is a picture of my desk....

House

The house has been amazing. We have been doing lots of things and all our projects seem to be going well. Our next major project is the landscaping. We basically have a lack of landscaping all over our property. We can’t wait to finalize plans and get started. It will take about 12 weeks to finish and I can’t wait to start enjoying our yard! One of the other things we got installed is a whole house fan, I know I blogged about it before but it is amazing. I mean it has been getting so cool at night here that we are running it every night and we haven’t turned our air conditioner on for days. I mean this morning I woke up and it was 64 degrees in the house! Bryan rolled over this morning and told me he was cold so I gave him a blanket! Can you believe that, summer and we are cold. Awesome! Here are some photos of the house, our new bed and new fans!!!

Nails

I know all of you love my nail posts, but I have to share this amazing color with all of you. It’s called OPI ink and it is amazing. It is basically blue in sunlight and purple indoors. Here are two pictures: Ps- these are not my nails, I just steal pictures from google!

indoors:

outdoors

Scrapbooking

So I have majorly fallen down on picture taking. I don’t even know where my little camera is at the moment. Moving has kind of turned things upside down. I scrapbooked Bryan and I’s first year of marriage and stopped there. I need to start up again and it makes me sad I really feel down on the job the last year and half. When you see me next ask me how my scrapbooking is going so I feel bad and pick it up again, okay? I really need to transfer the program along with all the clipart from the computer I used in Salt Lake. We had it in our office at the apartment and both Bryan and I used it. Well now that we both have our own offices at home, Bryan set it up in his office. I figure I got a computer from work and I could just use that for my office. Well I totally forgot about the scrapbook thing and now I am kind of confused at what I should do….

update

2010-07-19T06:40:00.000-07:00

So things have been hectic! I started my job on the 30^th of June. I am going to be working on the Display side of Intel 3D graphics. So the position usually takes about 2-3 months to get trained. Well they are short handed with people being on sabbatical and vacation that they are going to be training me in 3-4 weeks. I am very excited. I always have something to do and I am really enjoying work. My training buddy and mentor are very nice. They are both very helpful. I have set up my cube with pictures and stuff. They gave me a laptop and docking station with a GIANT monitor and keyboard. I have my own phone so call me during work hours 8am-5pm on it if you want to get a hold of me.

So Bryan finally arrived Sunday evening. He and Keven made the long haul from Salt Lake to here with a Uhaul, trailer and our other car. I couldn’t wait for them to show up. I have been doing stuff with the house for weeks. We have officially had keys since July 7^th. I have gotten a lot of things done since then, but there was only so much I could do without the furniture and Bryan! So now that he is home, the official moving in has begun. Last night the Todd’s and my parents, Keven, Bryan and I unloaded the Uhaul. It went really fast with 8 people carting things in the house. We got everything in the garage and moved a few things into the house. There is tons more to do, but we at least have everything in one state now. I am so thankful for the Todds and my parents for helping us. It got done so fast, I was amazed!

So here are some photos for your viewing pleasure.

kumo napping in the empty family room

new washer and dryer

kumo helping with the trash

kitchen with plants I just put up

new chair/ottoman that is going in our bedroom for a reading area

My dear friend Nikki's Birhtday is today!

2010-06-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

So I don't normally post anything about my friends birthdays on my blog. I usually just send them a card, text or facebook post. Some friends get a phone call. But since I really miss one friend of mine, she is going to get a blog post. This friend is Nikki. I met her while living in Salt Lake. We meet because of our dogs and I am so happy that chance exchange of information led to such a fun friendship. I have known her for almost a year, and she has turned into a very good friend of mine. She is honest and blunt when it comes to telling you how things are and she doesn't hold back her true feelings. She is funny and witty, and carefree. We share a lot of the same ideas and we can talk for hours, which we have done in the past. She listens to whatever you are saying, and always has some point of view to add to any situation. We have grown to be good friends and I miss her dearly. She was always up for a girls night of dinner and a movie with the dogs, or just simply taking the dogs for a walk around tanner or hiking in the canyon. I just wish that she and her husband John and thier dogs would just move here! Or like she mentioned if I could only just clone her the world would be perfect. I hope she is having a wonderful birthday today, and I wish I was there to tell her in person and give her a big hug! I really do miss her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKKI

Some FUN news!

2010-06-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

So a few blog posts back I mentioned that Bryan came out for an interview with HP. Well he came out on very short notice. He called me at noonish on a Wednesday and told me to book him a flight out that very night. I booked it and he left work and hoped on a plane here. He interviewed with HP on Thursday June 3rd. It has been three weeks, and Bryan and I were getting worried. Well on Friday I got a call from Bryan telling me he got the job! I was so excited! He will be starting Aug 2nd. He loved the people at HP and feels that he will really fit in and actually have fun at work! I am so proud of him!

Another bit of news that happened this week was about a house. When Bryan came out for his interview on June 3rd, we decided to start putting in an offer on a home. It has also been three weeks of back and forth negotiating on the price. Well we finally settled on a purchase price on Thursday! Bryan and I were so happy the process was over and were thrilled we got it for a good price. We were still apprehensive since Bryan hadn't been extended an offer, but figured we would have 17 days from Thursday to get him one. Well to our surprise he got one the very next day!!!!!!! The 17 days is the closing period when we need to get all the home/roof/landscape/pest inspections done. So if all goes well we will have the keys on July 7th!

So after all this excitement and three weeks of our lives being up in the air, things have seemed to settle down. Now for all the planning and preparing for the move/move-in. Now I start work on Monday, and so all these inspections are going to fall during this first week which means I am going to have one full week! Wish me luck at the job, I am so nervous!!

4 words....

2010-06-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

MY DAD LOVES KUMO

Some new photos

2010-06-10T14:47:00.001-07:00

So I mentioned adding more pictures from graduation, so here they are:

I also kind of re-decorated my room at my parents house and put up some pictures from the wedding:

And of course I couldn't post pictures without adding one of kumo. Here he is baking himself on the deck in the 80 degree heat. He is so strange.

A little update

2010-06-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

So life at home has been wonderful. I have been here for about four weeks and have been keeping busy! The first three weeks was scattered with interviews at Intel. I ended up having more than I expected. The interview process is a little intense with at least four hours of interviews and a couple hours of overviews/lunch. But it is all over! I got offered a job as a Component Design Engineer!
I start on June 21! Apart from the interviews I have been furiously house hunting. Yup, that is right, Bryan and I are house hunting. Now you may be wondering what is going on with Bryan?He came here last weekend to house hunt and visit. He is currently interviewing with HP and ended up coming out this weekend for an interview. Yup, two weekends in a row! So thats it for now, I am sure I will have much more news soon!!!

Graduation and other recent stuff!

2010-05-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

So I graduated! I have already gotten my grades for the semester and I passed so that means I should be getting my diploma in the mail soon! Things have been hectic to say the least recently. I had finals last week, along with graduation and various emails and phone calls from Intel. I then moved home to Granite Bay on Saturday, and now I am preparing for a week full of interviews. Everything is changing so fast. Just two weeks ago I wasn't thinking I had any interest from Intel and I didn't know what I was going to do. Well know I've got a bunch of interviews and I have moved. Moving wasn't that bad besides the fact that I didn't have much time to pack. The drive was nice and my Mom and I just chatted away the 10 hour drive and laughed at kumo being a dummy. It has finally hit me that I have moved.... I know that sounds odd, but I didn't really have a chance to say goodbye since it all happened so fast. I got to say goodbye to my really good friend Nikki though, and I am going to miss her tons! I really do hope we stay in touch and visit each other as often as we can! So Bryan is still in Salt Lake working at the Law Firm. He is going to stay at our apartment until he gets a job here. I am hoping he gets offered one here soon because it is lonely without him. Last night I think I rolled over to cuddle him and just got a bunch of pillows :( Anyhow I wish I had more pictures of graduation because we took a ton, but I was sick and didn't take any. So I have to get the pictures from Dad, Bruce and Carla.....so yeah thats the update! Hope everyone is enjoying the nice Spring weather!

Kumo's new tags

2010-04-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

So I ordered some tags a week or so ago for Kumo. He has a harness and a chain that he wears when we are out and so I got him a tag for each. They are engraved on the back with his information. They are just so cute I had to post a picture of them. They are called Red Dingo tags and you can get them on amazon!

more polish!

2010-04-22T13:36:00.001-07:00

Alright so these are the last photos I am going to post about nail polish. I have told myself I can no longer look. So as of the finish of this post I am no longer going to sit here looking at polishes, or at least I am really going to try not to.....

Can You Tapas This?

Give Me Moori!
Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow

Yes... I Can-Can

Nails!

2010-04-21T20:20:00.001-07:00

So lately I have been getting my nails done again. I started with the usual pink and white acrylics. I had those for a month or so and got really sick of the long length. I really wanted to have really short fake nails and have them look at real as possible. So I had her shorten them dramatically and had them painted. I have never been bold enough for dark colors, but she put a very dark purple almost black color on my nails and I fell in love! Here are some of my favorites! PS- these are not my nails, I sniped the photos from online. They are also all OPI colors.

Siberian Nights

Russian Navy

Mystery

Midnight in Moscow

Merry Midnight

Light my Sapphire

Holiday Glow
Black Cherry Chutney

Baby it's coal outside

All A-Bordeaux A Sled!

Last few weeks....

2010-04-06T10:57:00.000-07:00

Well the last few weeks for Bryan and I have been quite busy. So here is an update on what we have been doing!

Samantha’s Wedding
One of my really good friends got married on March 19th. My parents, Jessica(best friend) and I traveled to Scottsdale Arizona, and stayed for the whole weekend. I had never met her husband Jonathan before since he lives in England so it was nice to finally meet him. They met while Samantha was doing a semester abroad. The wedding was great, and the best man’s speech was hilarious!

½ Marathon Training
As many of you know I have been training for a half marathon. Well on March 18th, the day before Samantha’s wedding I ran 7 miles and made really good time, but my knee was killing me. I was limping around for the wedding and was really starting to worry about my knee. Well after the wedding I traveled back to Granite Bay to have some quality time with my parents and get some much needed appointments taken care of (got my hair done, yay!). Well I continued to run while at home, my Mom biked while I ran. My Mom mentioned along with Bryan that I should go get my knee looked at. So I went to an orthopedist, and ultimately got referred to a physical therapist. The good news is that there is NOTHING wrong with my knee, I just have a really tight IT band(muscle that goes from your hip to your knee and attaches to your outer kneecap) and I have a very weak vastus medialis ( inner quad muscle that attaches to the inner kneecap). So basically my kneecap is being pulled to the outside every step I take. So I have lots of stretching and exercises I have to do every day and it seems to be getting better.

Island Park
So while I went to Samantha’s wedding Bryan got to go to Island Park with his family. They have made it a yearly trip and snowmobiling is a must. This weekend was shorter than last with Bryan and his family going up late Friday afternoon are returning early Sunday.
Intel Interview
So I had my first Intel interview. It was over the phone and I was so nervous. I have been applying to Intel in Folsom since December and this is my first response from anyone at the company. The interview went well, but next time I will be more prepared. He asked a bunch of technical questions and I realized I needed to brush up on the basics a bit since I haven’t had an intro computer engineering course in a few years.

Snow in April!
Well last night it snowed a ton here. It felt like winter all over again. So this morning I took the pup to Tanner for some fun in the snow. We haven’t been to Tanner in a month of so since it has been so muddy. Kumo was so excited, he started whining as soon as we got on the freeway.

Some photos of kumo....

2010-03-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

So Kumo has been doing some of the 1/2 marathon training with me. He has never been running with me previously so he is learning to run nicely on the leash. He has done pretty well over the last two weeks. He ran one 5 mile run with me and got pretty bored. But the shorter runs he does great! He is totally tuckered out when he gets home and here are some photos of the little guy sleeping. He also got a new toy and sometimes like to use it as a pillow! hahahha

Training so far......

2010-03-13T19:42:00.001-08:00

So training has been going well. I have managed to stick to the schedule and not miss any days! :) So here is my progress so far! I am very slowly getting faster, yippiieeeeee!

TM=Treadmill and Out= Outside

Half Marathon Anyone?

2010-02-28T18:46:00.001-08:00

So a few weeks back some new neighbors moved in across the hall from us. Well I have become good friends with them. There names are Stephanie and Clark. A few days ago Stephanie mentioned running the Salt Lake Half Marathon that takes place on April 17th. I didn't think much of it at the time but over the last couple of days I have decided I really want to do it! My Mom ran tons of marathons and half marathons when she was my age so I decided I would do one especially since I will have someone there to run it with me! So training starts tomorrow. Here is what my schedule is going to look like the next 7 weeks......

So Jessica (my sister in law) is maybe going to do this thing with me! So here is another schedule that is more intense for better runners like her!!!

update on things

2010-02-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

So as many of you know I am finishing up my college degree in Computer Engineering. I graduate in May! Bryan is already done and I am so jealous! However I am just so close. Now all I have to do is find a job. My dream job is available at Intel and I have applied for several positions and everyday I cross my fingers I get contacted. Since I have been applying to Intel since December I started to get discouraged, and decided maybe I could be doing more? So I looked at Career Fairs that Intel was attending. I saw there was one at ASU and decided to jump at the opportunity! I attended ASU for my first two years of college and am still very close with a family there. So I stayed with the Shaw's and had a blast. I love Samantha's family! Anyhow I went to the Career Fair a bit nervous but confident that I could make an impression. Well I think I did because I got the recruiters email and I quickly typed a follow up email. The recruiter is great and I hope my short three minute impression gets me a job!!!! That would be so awesome! Anyhow here are some pictures from recently.....

This is what nap time looks like for kumo and I....

Samantha's sister thought that Kumo was a bigger dog. She has a husky/shepard mix that is a medium sized dog and asked if kumo was the same size. Well I didn't have any pictures that really depicted his small stature, so I figured I would get him sleeping next to my shoe....So here it is... This is how big kumo is....he looks big and acts big, but he is still small enough that he can sleep on me without crushing me!!!

New wellsfargo card? Help me choose!

2010-02-04T11:11:00.001-08:00

So my friend Nikki got her Visa card done with a picture of her pups, and I decided to look into it. Here is Nikki's card:

Well wellsfargo does do it! So I need some help choosing some pictures.... Let me know what ones you like!!!

#2
#3

My friend Nikki

2010-01-18T16:32:00.000-08:00

So since taking my photography class over summer I haven't done much with Photoshop recently. My good friend Nikki asked me how I got my blog header, and I told her that I created it in Photoshop. So I offered to do one for her. She sent me a few pictures and just let me do the rest. I had a blast! I really love photoshop and I love learning new things about how to use it. Anyways so here is the header that I ended up....

For those of you who don't know Nikki, we met over summer. It was kind of a random meeting. I ran into some people walking their Siberian Husky pup and they asked me if Kumo was a Klee Kai. I said yes and they said that someone they worked with had just gotten one. I asked them where their friend got their Klee Kai from and they said Texas. I told them that I had gotten Kumo from Oregon. So I immediately went home and emailed the two Klee Kai breeders in Texas. I guess Nikki did the same thing and emailed the breeders in Oregon. Well we got in contact and were friends from then on. Now Nikki and I meet up to go on walks to Tanner and have decided to go hiking every weekend! Her and her husband John are great people and their two dogs are so cute.

If anyone else wants me to make them a blog header, just go ahead and ask! I would love to do one!

A very good read

2009-12-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

So I have been following a blog for some time. It's not someone that I personally know but her story is very interesting. The Arizona Republic just finished an article on her and its a very good read. It takes a while to read so give yourself some time to read it, but make sure to read it all. Its heart warming. Here it is

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/stephanie-nielson-intro-120609.html

There is an intro and 10 parts to the story.

Senior Project

2009-12-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

So for my Computer Engineering Senior Project a group of us had to design and build something relevant to our studies. We decided to build dynamic source filtering sunglasses. Our goal was to design some sort of glasses that would blot out bright lights like the sun. We accomplished this by designing a processor that read in brightness levels from a camera mounted about your eye. The processor would then determine which light sources to blot out based on a variable threshold. The processor would then tell the LCD to darken certain pixels. The LCDs were running at 60Hz so it would refresh faster than your eye could move. This allowed our processor to track bright lights and blot them out even when they were moving (or when you were moving). Today was demo day and here are some pictures from it. There were three other senior project teams. Each team had four team members and I was the only girl on any team. All teams successfully completed their projects and our professor announced today that we all got A’s! Here are some pictures from the day:

Here is our group: me, Torrey, Jason and Dan

LCDs and cameras. Notice the sunglasses is front of the cameras. This was because the camera processor would gamma correct and we were not able to interface with it and tell it not to. So therefore we just used some good old fashioned sun glasses to darken what the cameras were seeing.

better view of one LCD and camera
Our processor

closer view

our hand controls. Ever persons eyes sit different and have different head shapes and therefore fit into the hard hat differently. So we had some controls to adjust the cameras.

Our senior project professor trying it out

front view of the whole module

Why is there dog hair.....

2009-11-30T09:30:00.001-08:00

You may ask yourself why is there dog hair on the back of the two couches?...... Answer:

And why is there dog hair in my car's cup holders..... Answer:

It's a good thing he is so dang cute. He falls asleep in the funniest places, so I figured you would get a kick out of the photos! Enjoy!

Thanksgiving with the Todd's

2009-11-28T20:37:00.001-08:00

So for Thanksgiving this year Bryan and I went up to the Todd Ranch. Bryan, Keven and I waited until Jessica flew into Salt Lake from Cali, and then started on the road to Bluebell. We got to Grandma and Grandpa Todd’s a little after 1pm on Thanksgiving Day. A bunch of Bryan’s extended family was there. Unfortunately I had come down with a very bad cold, and was pretty sick on Thursday and Friday. Thanksgiving was yummy, and the games with the family were silly! I was definitely thankful for cold medicine this year and a nice warm bed to sleep in. Friday was a day spent with Bryan’s immediate family. We did some Christmas decorating and Kiley did the tree all by herself! Notice I am not in the pictures because I didn’t want my sick face yucking up the pictures. Anyhow we ended Friday watching the movie Angels & Demons. Boy do I LOVE that movie! Saturday we all packed up and made our way out to Provo. It was the BYU vs UTAH game and Keven, Jess, Bruce, Bryan and I were to go to the game. Well due to the fact I still felt sick, I opted out of going and went along with Carla and Kiley on a little shopping trip and some girl time. We stopped at this party store in Lehi and I had my first Zortz candy, it was so yummy! After that Carla, Kiley, and I made our way to the Gateway mall in Salt Lake and got a pedicure! It was wonderful, especially on a cold day like today. Unfortunately we had to walk out in the cold after the pedicure in flip flops as to not ruin our nail polish. That was not so wonderful. We ended the day with some paradise bakery. What a wonderful Thanksgiving! Notice I did not mention the score of the BYU vs UTAH game… I do not accept the outcome, so I am not reporting on it! Hahah Here are the pictures… didn’t take hardy any since I wasn’t feeling well…..

Tanner in the snow...

2009-11-23T14:38:00.000-08:00

So it finally snowed again in Salt Lake last night. Everything got coating in about an inch or so of snow. I decided I had to go to Tanner park today before everything started to melt. It was so pretty in the park. The south side of the park is relatively shaded so the snow was still all over the trees. It was a really peaceful walk. Here are some pictures....

the view on the way down into the park...
Kumo looking over the ridge

sitting on the bench overlooking the park

what a cutie!

all the tree covered in snow....it was so pretty

the snowy trail

Mill Creek Canyon hike!!!

2009-11-22T16:43:00.000-08:00

So today Bryan, Keven and I decided to go up to Mill Creek Canyon to do a little hiking. It was forecasted to snow so we thought it would be fun to hike in the snow. Well we went up the canyon and got onto the Thayne Canyon trail. We hiked up the canyon for a little over an hour and headed back down. Bryan and I tried out our new snow spikes and they were awesome!!!! It didn't start snowing until we were on our way down, but it still was a nice hike. Here are the pictures....

camouflage?

Bryan was throwing snow balls at Kumo...Kumo went nuts and was running all over the place, hahaha

bry and kev striking a pose?

bry and kev

Snow spikes!!!!

2009-11-16T19:09:00.000-08:00

Bryan and I went to Tanner park on Sunday and walked around in the snow. It was so beautiful! I slipped a few times even with it being the first snow and all. I remember one of my friends mentioning something about snow spikes to me, maybe it was Hailey or Amy. I can't remember. Anyhow I did some research and ordered some today from qvc. I can't wait to try them out this weekend. It is supposed to snow on Saturday so hopefully I can try them out then! Here is what they look like!

Winter's Here!

2009-11-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

So when I got up this morning, I figured the weather reporter had just made a mistake, because there were no clouds and no snow. Well a few hours later I was sitting in the office on the computer, with Kumo on the window seat. I noticed that he was intently staring outside. Well sure enough it was snowing. I let the little pup out onto the balcony, and he loved it. He would come inside ever once in a while and run around in circles, and then he would want to go back out... Crazy pup! I guess he really was made for the snow. Here are some pictures.....

in the office when he first realized it was snowing...

he loves to eat the snow off the ground, what a wierdo!

New favorite past time!

2009-11-09T11:53:00.000-08:00

So as you all know, Bryan and are are super busy with school. Well I have found that I love to go hiking! It's a great way for me to relieve stress. There is an off leash nature walk near our house that I love to take Kumo to all the time. Bryan usually is really busy with school and work, but I managed to get him to do a big hike with me last month. There is a canyon near us called millcreek and it has a bunch of hiking trails that you can take your dogs off leash on odd days. We did this 2 hour hike up to a little lake. I about died and Bryan and Kumo were both totally good to go. This was Kumos first big hike and he is totally an athletic little guy. Bryan and I like to say he thinks he is a wolf when he is off leash because he runs around in the bushes. What a silly pup!

Nikki, John, Enna and Makoa!!

2009-11-08T14:49:00.000-08:00

So over summer as some of you may already know, we meet a couple that had a klee kai the same age as Kumo. Well they graciously offered to watch Kumo while Bry and I were in hawaii. Well having the two dogs in the house for two whole weeks must have rubbed them the right way, because by the time Bryan and I got home they had already signed a contract to get another Klee Kai. He is one of the rare Red/White Klee Kais. Nikki and John still watch Kumo from time to time and he loves going over to their house. They got to watch him this last Saturday and Nikki gave me the pictures from his stay....

Makoa, Enna, Kumo

Kumo loves playing with Enna

All three playing

Kumo loves to terrorize their cat, this is him staring her down through the door

Makoa

Our Maui trip so far....

2009-08-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

So as many of you know we are in Maui right now! There was a hurricane that was forcasted to hit us on Tuesday but by the time it got here is wasn't much of anything besides a bunch of rain! We are staying with my parents in the Kapalua/Napili and it rains here every morning and evening but on Tuesday it rained all day :( We went on a scuba instruction on Monday and had a blast! Unfortunately we didn't get to see anything really cool (like an octopus) because all the animals were probably hiding from the upcoming storm :( Other than that we have been enjoying the sun and my parents company! We have two kayak trips planned for later in the week and next week, along with a sail trip and a magic show!

Well a week before we went to Maui I got in contact with another couple owning an Alaskan Klee Kai! They live in West Valley and have a female Klee Kai that it 4 days older than Kumo, her name is Enna(eee-na)! She is so adorable and is much smaller than Kumo. He weighs about 13 pounds and she weighs 5.5 pounds. There are three sizes to the breed and she is definitely the smallest size. Well we got to hang out with them a couple of time before heading to Maui and they graciously offered to take care of Kumo while we were gone! I was so excited! So Kumo has been having fun playing with Enna and her owners John and Nikki seem to be having fun with the dogs! They sent me this cute picture yesterday of Enna and Kumo cuddling! How cute!

Here they are at the doggie park

Kumo got neutered.....

2009-07-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

Kumo got neutered yesterday and it doing well. The vet said to keep him really quiet for a few days and no dog park for 10 whole days!! Anyhow when I picked him up he was really sleepy and apparently cold bc he wanted to sun himself on our balcony in the 90 degree heat! Anyways he has been licking his stitches so I have to put this collar on him for when I can't watch him, and well you can see how much he enjoys it.... here are some pictures....

Uploaded videos on youtube!

2009-07-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

So I am in the process of uploading a bunch of my videos on youtube! I am starting with recent ones like Kumo and hoping to work backwards to some videos of us!!! Anyhow last night was hilarious....Kumo was sleeping on the floor last night next to Bryan and he was so tired he didn't notice his tongue was hanging out! What a silly pup! Well I have finally decided to get some vidoes up on youtube. Here is our youtube link...

http://www.youtube.com/dpashleytodd

We found Kumo's brother!!!!

2009-07-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

So I randomly stumbled onto a video of a very familiar looking Klee Kai just the other day. I made Bryan come in and have a look at it and he was amazed at how much the little pup on the video looked like Kumo. Well I watched the video a couple of times and checked the little guys facial markings and realized it looked just like one of Kumo’s littermates! Well I got an email today from the lady that owns him and it definitely is one of Kumo’s littermates! It is actually the puppy that we almost chose! We went with Kumo because he was slightly bigger! So here are some pictures of Kumo’s brother and at the end is a youtube clip of him! I can’t believe how much he looks like Kumo!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0u1GaHugf8

A blog for Tanya Mathis!!!!

2009-06-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

So I finally got an update on my friend Tanya! We have known each other since 7th grade for me and 6th grade for her. She is a year younger than me, and has two older brothers my age that I am also friends with. Well we were inseparable growing up. I have missed her dearly lately and she finally emailed me and started a blog! We call each other Sissy and I am so excited to finally get a chance to see what she is up too! Hopefully she keeps blogging because that would be awesome. I decided to post some photos of us through the years… so here they are! Miss you Sissy! See you in July!!!! LOVE YOU!!!

Thanksgiving 2006

Christmas 2007
Feb 2002Jan 2000

Photo retouching

2009-06-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

So I finally learned how to retouch photos! A link that I find really useful when working with faces is http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/photoshop-touchup-tutorials/ Its got many tutorials on how to fix blemishes, teeth, etc. Anyhow I did my first practice one on Carla and I and it turned out great! Here is it!

If you click on the photo it will enlarge it so you can really see what I did.

Also here is the original....

Photography turn in??

2009-06-08T14:28:00.000-07:00

So for my photography class I was assigned to take two close up/macro photos and two landscape photos. I just cannot decide which ones to turn in tho! Some of them are different crops of the same image, but let me know which two are your favorite in each category because I am stumped!

landscape 1

landscape 2
landscape 3

landscape 4

landscape 5

landscape 6

now here are the close up/macro photos

close up/macro 1

close up/macro 2

close up/macro 3

close up/macro 4

close up/macro 5

close up/macro 6

close up/macro 7

Kumos personality

2009-06-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

Kumo just looks so smug in these I had to post them for my Mom. Love you! Miss you!

More photos for class

2009-06-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

So my assignment was to use light in three creative ways. Here are my three photos:

1) Here is a photo only using ambient lighting. I was not allowed to bring in any light to take the photo. I had to use the light only from the subject. This photo was taken with a 15 second exposure. It turned out nicely.

2) This photo was taken using a technique called light painting. The trick is to take a longer exposure of an object and introduce secondary light. In my case I set the exposure and used a LED flashlight to light up the parts of the photography that I wanted to highlight. You can see where the surrounding lights are more golden, the LED that I used has more of a white light.

3) For this photo I used a technique called fill flash. I never knew that I could really take good pictures inside. Whenever I used to try the photos were either too dark or the flash was just so obvious. I learned how to use flash to my advantage and make it subtle. Kumo face was shaded before I used the fill flash. So I set the flash way low so that I could bring out the colors in his face without showing that I was using flash.

Photography class

2009-05-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

So I have started a summer school class at the U. My Momma let me borrow he amazing camera so I could get some good photography experience in. Our first two assignments were to take a photo using a fast and slow shutter speed to capture a moving object. I chose to do the water fountain in our apartments courtyard. We were also assigned to capture a short depth of field and a large depth of field. Here are my four photographs.

Updates on Kumo's Brothers and Sisters

2009-05-04T11:37:00.001-07:00

Can you guess which one is Kumo? These are pictures of his whole litter....

picture #1

picture #2

picture #3picture #4

picture #5

picture #6

picture #7

picture #8

As you can see one little guy looks identical to Kumo! It's crazy because that was the pup we were originally interested in! Kumo is now 8lbs 9oz and outweighs all his brothers and sisters by a whole pound!

picture#1:Kumo picture#2:JerseyJoe picture#3:Kumo picture#4: JerseyJoe picture#5,6: Flash picture#7,8: Diamonds.

Diamonds just went to her new home in Tuscon AZ and JerseyJoe went to New Hampshire. Flash is still with the breeder and is going to Canada soon.

Carla and Kiley come to visit!

2009-05-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

Bryan left for Washington DC on Thursday to spend some time with his Dad and visit some law schools. School ended on Wednesday and so Carla and Kiley came into town to keep me company over the weekend! We had tons of fun together with visiting Grandma, playing up at the University with the dog and watching a movie! Kiley loves Kumo and so I just had to get a picture of her holding him. He is getting so big and looks huge in Kiley’s arms. The other pictures are from the day before they arrived. Kumo loves to hang out on the end of the couch watching while you are in the kitchen. Here are the pictures:

Kumo gets wet

2009-04-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

Well after Ben's wedding we had some of our friends over and we all went down to the hot tub. I just stuck my feet in because I wanted to be able to watch Kumo. Our hot tub is fenced in but I had him on a leash just in case he wanted to try some funny business. Well I guess he wanted to be with all the rest of the people in the hot tub and he jumped in! The hot tub is so hot and I immediately scooped him up. It was hilarious because when he gets wet you can really see how skinny his legs are.... huskies are known for having small frames hidden underneath their thick coats and Kumo looks just like Nakita when he gets well with his small legs. Anyhow everyone was laughing and I thought it was pretty funny, but I immediately had to take him upstairs to wash the chlorine off him since he is still a pup and I don't know what chlorine will do to his skin. Anyhow I took some pictures in the bathroom after dunking him in the bathtub... he was not happy with me... here they are:

Ben's wedding!

2009-04-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

So Ben(Bryan's mission companion, who he is still very close with) got sealed for all time and eternity in the Salt Lake temple yesterday to Allyson! It was a beautiful day here in Salt Lake. It has been raining for the past few days so everything is just so green! Here are some pictures from the day.

My two sleepy loves...

2009-04-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

So Kumo loves to sleep on Bryan... We went up to the mountains this last weekend for Bryan to snowboard and for Kumo and I to play in the snow. On the way home Kumo was so tired but he only wanted to sleep ontop of Bryan's shoulders...silly dog... here are the pictures...

It snowed today!

2009-04-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures of the little guy in the snow. He ran around like crazy! Now he is sound asleep since he tuckered himself out.

The Todd's came into town!

2009-04-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

So the Todd's came into town on Monday and got to meet Kumo, here are the pictures from the day. They were only here for a short while, and we some how missed getting a picture of Bruce!

Kumo has discovered a new toy....

2009-04-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

Kumo has finally warmed up to his puprle octopus toy.... he is now obsessed with it and plays with it all the time.... until he falls asleep. Here are some new pictures and a video, check out the sound on the viedo since the toy makes so much noise, its funny!

KUMO made it home!

2009-04-05T07:06:00.000-07:00

So we got the little pup yesterday and he is fantastic. I am watching him right now so I will make this post short, but here are the pictures from the day. Dave and Tyler were over as well. The first picture is right when we picked him up. He is so cute! Well I need to go feed him! enjoy the pictures!

Kumo comes on Saturday!

2009-03-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well we finally have a definate date for when we get the little guy. He is going to be arriving on Saturday at 4:00pm. We are so excited. We have all the stuff we need for a brand new pup and we are getting the carpets steam cleaned on Friday so that we can play with him on a nice clean surface, plus our carpets definately need to be cleaned. I have been in this apartment for a year and a half and they aren't exactly high quality carpets so they are pretty worn. We know he is going to be a hand full for the first couple of months but we are just so excited to have him home with us finally. He is getting big and we can't wait to see what he looks like. The last pictures we saw of him were at 7 weeks, and on Saturday he will almost be 10 weeks! I can't wait to see what he looks like, expecially since they change colors a lot as pups. So yup we are excited and I can't wait... I am sure everyone is very aware of this since I mention to everyone I talk to that we are getting Kumo on Saturdayyyyyy! Next post will probably be pictures of us and our new addition!

Roosevelt

2009-03-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

So Bryan and I decided to go up to Roosevelt for the end of our Spring Break. It was a layed back couple of days. We golfed, played soccer and I helped Carla set up her blog!!! It was nice to get away from Salt Lake for a couple of days and boy did it feel like Spring! The temperature was perfect the whole time we were there! I did forget my camera this trip bit quickly remembered that I could use my cell phone camera.... they are a bit grainer than my usual pictures but it all worked out! Here are the pictures from our trip:

bruce using the "butt move"

Kumo update!

2009-03-16T21:43:00.001-07:00

We got some more updates of Kumo! The breeder just sent over these pictures of him. He is now seven weeks old!!!!!! I can’t wait to get the little guy. We are almost done with making preparations for his arrival and it just seems like the weeks aren’t coming soon enough! Tomorrow I get to call Delta and make arrangements for his flight!

Kumo and Momma

Our one year anniversary!

2009-03-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

So it has been one year! I can't believe it! The Todd family had a trip planned to Island Park(near Yellowstone in Idaho) for this last weekend. Since it was our anniversary we decided to make the trip our anniversary celebration. We got to hang out with a bunch of the Todd family. It was so cool since everyone up at the cabin had the last name Todd.... we were one huge happy family! The people that went were: Bruce, Keven, Jessica, Jeneca, Breanna, Mike, Greg, Tyson, Brandon, Dani, and Steph! We arrived in Island Park on Friday and stayed until Sunday! We went snowmobiling all day Saturday and it was just great! For me it was a great time to get to know more of the extended Todd family and get to spend some time getting to know the newest addition to the family! Dani and Tyson got sealed last weekend and it was my first time meeting her! She was so sweet and fit right in with the whole Todd Clan! It was a great anniversary!!!! Bryan and I both love to spend time with each other’s families and it was perfect to be surrounded by family on our anniversary! Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Oregon visit!

2009-03-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

So we left for Oregon early Friday morning. We immediately got a rental car and drove to Sweet Home Oregon to visit Bette and her amazing dogs. We got there around noon and played with the puppies until around 2:30. It took us around that whole amount of time to make up our minds on which puppy we wanted. It was such a hard decision because they were all so adorable! We ended up choosing the biggest male(puppy #1). He loved Bryan and loved to explore and run back and forth between the two of us. All the rest of the puppies remained very close to me and weren’t as curious of Bryan. So we decided to get the curious little male. Family and friends all liked puppy number three and we ended up choosing puppy number one! Kiley was the only one that liked him from the start! He was so adorable! After visiting with Bette we left Sweet Home and ventured back to Portland to visit with Todd and Pamy! We all visited and munched on some snacks. It was a fun day! Too bad it was so short. After leaving Pamy and Todd’s we were off to Sacramento to visit my parents. We had a nice time relaxing and visiting with family. The weekend was just too short! Here are the pictures! I might post some videos later in the week!

all four pups... it was hard to take pictures because they were always moving

Our big Kumo!

Kumo relaxing on Bry

all the puppies fell asleep on me.... Kumo is far right.

Kumo and I

all four sleepin away. Kumo is closest to the camera

Kumo sleepin on me

Todd and Pamy's get together

We picked a pup!

2009-03-06T23:14:00.000-08:00

Well today we ventured out to Portland OR to visit Todd and Pamy and to pick out our cute little pup. We weren't able to bring him home today since he is only 6 weeks old, but we did get a chance to play will all the pups. We choose our puppy and we are going to name him "Kumo". I will post more pictures tomorrow! He is the title photo of our blog for now!

New addition to the family?!?!?!

2009-03-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

Bryan and I haven't posted in a while. We have both been super busy with school. It's crazy. Last semester we both finished with really good grades and this semester has been hectic! We both always knew that after a year of marriage we wanted to make an addition to our family, but we didn’t know it would be coming so soon! Don’t get too excited people, we are talking about a dog….. no babies yet! We are planning on getting an Alaskan Klee Kai (miniature version of the Siberian Husky). Getting a dog of this breed as been a huge challenge. Since there are only about 1500 dogs registered in the United States, finding breeders and finding puppies has been a task. As of December we were on about 7 breeders waiting lists. About 4 of the breeders had litters in January and one litter fit out needs. We were looking to get placed with a grey/white male with blue eyes. We got an email around Feb 1st from Huggable Huskies in Oregon notifying us that they had a litter of four grey/white puppies, three of which were male. We were super excited, but didn’t want to get our hopes up too soon since it takes about three weeks to really determine eye color. Well as of today they are about 5 weeks old and all three little males have blue eyes! We are having a hard time deciding on a little guy so we are going to post their pictures from two weeks, three weeks, and five and you can help us pick! We are also going to visit the breeder this Friday to help us decide on which little pup we will be taking home in April! I have a picture of what they will look like as adults. So here are the pictures. Click on each to get a larger image of each..

what they will look like as adults

Weekend in Roosevelt

2008-09-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Bry and I along with Tyler and Dave drove up to Roosevelt Friday during the day. We got there around six and settled in. Saturday was an all day event. We went wake boarding on Ray and Nancy’s boat along with Tylers little brother Mitch, and of course Bruce, Carla and Kiley. The weather was bit cold for boating as you can see by Carla and I in our sweatshirts. It was fun regardless though. After boating we came back and BBQed for a bit and enjoyed the beautiful day! After we were full from the wonderful meal we were off to go paintballing! It was Bryan, Tyler and I on one team with Dave Bruce and Ray on the other team. We played three rounds and we tied one lost one and won one! It was a blast. We left early Sunday morning and drove back to Salt Lake. I wish we could have stayed a bit longer. It really was a short weekend!

the guys in thier wetsuits

bry trying to get his on
backflip!
dave
dave
ty

ty grabbing the board
bruce and kiley
bry jumpin
bry
kiley drivin

the were trying to run back and forth and make the floating dock rock

bruce,ray,dave,bry,me,ty
Dave wanted a paintball wound and so he got one!

Night games

2008-09-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

Last week we all (BK,Ash,Bry,me,Kev,Dev,Lauren) went up to this park in the avenues. We have gone up here a couple of nights and played night games. Our favorite game to play is Sardines. One person goes and hides and the rest of the people have to find him/her and hide with him/her. Last one to come hide loses. It’s a fun little game especially since it’s a big park and you can’t see a thing at night. We played some glow in the dark Frisbee as well. Here a pic from that night

Almost campfire fun

2008-09-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we decided to drive up to the mountains to have a little campfire fun! Well..... as we were driving up it decided to start thunderstorming! So here are some picture of us gettting into the car to go... and then there are none of us actually there.... :(

bry gettin stuff out of storage

the guys apartment
kevie and bry
bry devie and kevie
kevi ash bk

Raging Waters

2008-09-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

So Saturday we decided to go to Raging Waters for some fun in the sun! Here are some pictures from the day. The slide at the end was so amazing! There was this huge drop off you basically fell all the way down to the middle.... so scary

the boys being boys

bry
kevie
devie

Trevor Reports to the MTC Aug. 27th, 2008

2008-08-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

So Trevor got his call to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints back in May. He was called to serve a two year mission in the Sapporo Japan Mission. He was to report to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Aug 27th for language and missionary training. He is going to spend 12 weeks in the MTC perfecting his Japanese and learning the lessons that he will be teaching to the people of Sapporo. When Trevor was little he was asked what he would be doing after high school and he wrote that he would be serving a mission in Japan. Even Carla knew he was going to be called to Japan. She has been saying that ever since he was little. So when he got called to Japan everyone was excited but not surprised! We are all going to miss Trevor a ton! We all left him in tears, but he was ready. I asked him on Wednesday if it had hit him yet, and he said that he was excited and ready to go. I know he will be an excellent Missionary. Trevor has always been the quite one but I know that he loves his family, his Heavenly Father and his Church, and that’s why I know he will do great. Japan is lucky to have an Elder Todd! We will miss you tons Trev!

Bry and Trev at lunch before the MTC

Trev after Bry showed him how to tie a double Windsor(sp?) knot

Trev & all his bags
Carla and Bruce
All of us sending him off
the kids
Carla putting the nametag he is going to wear for two years on

Trev and Kiley
the kids

Bruce and Trev

Trevor's Farewell Week!

2008-08-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

We got home from Hawaii on the morning of Aguust 19th and we came home to a bunch of Todd’s in Salt Lake! Jess and Keven came over from California to spend the last week here in Utah with Trevor. It was a great week! We ended up doing a bunch of things from bowling, going to Lagoon, paintballing, golfing and boating(with the Hussey’s)! It was a great week ending in a Sunday Farewell. Trev got to talk in church on Sunday and everyone came over for lunch directly after church. Trevor gave a great talk and I know in my heart he is so ready to serve. Man, I lucked out into marrying into the best family ever! All of the Todd’s are so amazing and could not have asked for a better second family!

bowling

lagoon!

Bruce being "ghettttooo" in bry's hat
trev throwing

rattlesnake rapids

Bry and his Dad invested into some guns :)

paintaballing

golfin!

boating

kev

bruce
kiley

bry

jess

MAUI - our favorite place!

2008-08-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

So we left for Hawaii on July 30th and we stayed on Maui until August 18th! We had so much fun! For the first few days we were with my parents and we finally got to see their wonderful new condo! And boy was it amazing! Diego and Mariela came on August 3rd and stayed until August 10th. Anyhow we stayed at our timeshare for a whole week with those two. Bryan and I even got our first taste of the road to Hana. The views were just amazing, but the road was just a little bit windy. We even went on this hike that Bry and I try to go on every year. I unfortunately have a fear of murky water, and I mean unfortunately because we had to swim across this huge pool of water. It was so scary! Bry and Diego got some cliff jumping in I even jumped off black rock! We got some tennis in while we were at the resort and I even finished Breaking Dawn in 6 days! By the way, it was an amazing book! If anyone hasn’t read the Twilight series please read it! Julie thanks for suggesting it to me! Diego and Mariela left on the 10th and two of my other bridesmaid (Jess and Samantha) came out to stay with my parents and us! We all had a blast! We got to go on a sailing cruise and a 5 hours zip line tour! Bry and Jess even say a sting ray! We saw a ton of turtles and even some dolphins! It was a fun week! I was a bit bummed though because Samantha and Bryan beat Jess and I at tennis! Grrrr! All in all no one wanted to go home. It was great to spend time with my friends but what was the best part of all was being able to spend time with my parents. Bry and I just love going out to visit them, we wish we could see them more! Leaving was sad but Bry and I were coming home to his family all in Salt Lake so it made leaving paradise a little bit easier!

Bry and I at Cheeseburger in Paradise

Diego and Mariela

Bry with his tattoo
hiking
the bamboo looks like a monster
my hot stud!
us on the hike

Bry and Diego had a fight!
bry being a mountain man!
the waterfall at the end of the hike
I don't know what we are doing... hahha
Our Henna tattos

after snorkeling!
Watchin the sunset
Mariela and I in the car with our cowboy hats!
us on the hike in Hana
Bry on the sailboat

my wonderful parents!
MAUI!
our friend the turtle
this is my parents condo complex! Its amazing!
Bry in the sparkling sun!

Bryan of course being silly... like normal!
Jess and Samantha in the bay in fron
Sitting under our umbrellas... I somehow lost the picture of the rest of us.
Sandman from the comic?

Don't ask me what Bry is doing....
My babe and I after he beat me at tennis!
Bry and I after a long day in the sun before sushi!
Bry getting fitted
Jess getting fitted
me getting fitted
Bry being his silly self!
Jess and Sam on the drive up
Bry and I with Molokai in the background! the up zip that pulled us up the mountain
the longest zip line! it was like over 2000 feet!
Bry and I getting ready to go... Samantha was the fastest out of all of us! We all raced!
Jess and Bry waiting to go
this was the buggie that took us up& down the mountain to/from zip lining!
Samantha and I at the airport about to leave :(