Catching up... June 2010

Back in June....

My dad, very generously, sent us a graduation present. We graduated from a 15" (fabulous TV/monitor that my brother sent me and served me very, very well) to a 46" TV. And we never left the house again.

JUST KIDDING!!! (about the leaving the house part anyway)

We also:

went to a Peter Breinholt concert in a park in SLC



went to the Scottish Festival at Thanksgiving Point...
(lots of bag-pipers)




even ones with dogs dressed to match (AWESOME!!!)

Irish dancers...

Caber Tossing...

And this guy, wearing my personal favorite kilt. (also, he kind of reminded me of Burke)

Also in June, we went to a beautiful wedding at the Red Butte Gardens:

View of SLC

As if that wasn't enough... we also ventured off to Las Vegas for a "Yay, I lived through teaching my first term of Biomechanics!!" celebration.

Downtown at the Freemont Street Experience (the only "Vegas" thing we did while we were there).

 I love these spray paint artists.

The view from our hotel room

The pool at our hotel.  Made even better by the fact that there was a TGI Friday's right next to it and they delivered POOLSIDE!

On our way back north, we stopped by the St. George temple.  Next time, maybe we'll actually go in. :-)

And, adding to the Mormon-ness, the Manti temple.  We went to see the pageant... at which we only lasted about an hour.  The spectacle was impressive, but... well, I'm just not made for that much "culture". :-)

Up next, we'll catch up with July... (if you're still awake while reading this, of course). :-D

Naked Face!!

Welcome to BYU, Andrew.

(PS. Blogging from my phone. No idea how to make the picture rotate...)

Girl in da Hood* (aka Graduation Weekend)

Last weekend, we got to go back to Delaware to celebrate our graduations. Andrew was nice enough to forego his (which took place two weeks before) so that I could attend mine. I'm so glad I got to go. Plus, it was great to see the family and friends that we were able to in the short time we had.

Also? It was great to see Philly all Flyer-ed up! Even in the airport. Awesome.

At the baggage claim. :-)

The Main Event

The part that you miss hearing is the thanks to my friends and family for not letting my dissertation induced grouchiness permanently influence our relationships. :-) And then the best part as Mary Martin read my final comment:

"Let's Go Flyers!!"

Me and Dr. Richards with the celebratory ice cream.

My dad and I after the ceremony.

Andrew and me - so happy this part is over with!!

And here's the proof that I'm done:

:-) :-) :-)

Boy, am I glad that's done.

So then it was time to celebrate!

Friends came...

Cake was had...

Children were amused (and amusing)...

All in all, a good time was had by all, even if I missed my brother terribly (thanks Mom and Kim for making the party happen!) I just wish I could have spent more time with everyone. It was kind of like the wedding all over again.

The night ended with a photo shoot with Andrew all dolled up too.

On Saturday, we had a busy day of visiting people, followed by dinner with my mom and cousin (plus some) to watch the Flyers' game. Too bad it didn't turn out the way we wanted. The only good picture I have from Saturday is of Kika's daughter Mattie when Andrew had her on his shoulders. So stinking cute. I'm just sad I missed the pictures of Andrew playing with Eddie. I'm pretty sure I won't forget the hilarity of the almost 3 year old being perfectly content to drink out of his little sister's sippy cup... until he saw Andrew drinking out of a water bottle. He promptly declared the sippy cup for "baby" and held out his hands for Andrew's water bottle. Hee. He's so cute. Even if he does think I'm Andrew's mother... Apparently the fact that Andrew and I had to leave at the same time as Eddie had to go to bed equates to me making Andrew leave because it must have been his bedtime too. Gotta love the mind of a 2 year old!

Mattie and Kika... and a tiny bit of Andrew's head.

So now we're back in Provo. Well, I am. Andrew is currently on his way to California for a few days for his brother's graduation. Congratulations, Clark!!

5 more class periods... a bit more grading... and then?? I GET TO PLAAAAAAYYYY!!!

I can't wait.

*Credit for the post title must be given to Dr. Ridge.  As in Dr. Doug Ridge (the number of Dr. Ridges is growing every day in this family...)  It made me giggle. :-)

More Snow. Seriously.

Yes, it's May 24th. You got a problem with that??

These were taken pretty early in the "storm". Large, wet flakes were falling... people kept walking in to the offices saying, "Merry Christmas!" That's definitely what it looked like. :-)

Awesome. I love this weather.

Being social... even in Utah.

This weekend was great. Even though it started off by me working until 10:30 Friday night, followed by a midnight trip to the grocery store (WinCo rocks my socks!!!)

We woke up on Saturday morning, did a little cleaning, and rolled on up to Park City, where a good friend of mine from college, Chia, was visiting her sister. I love the fact that so many of my friends end up visiting Utah, for whatever random reason. And when they do, they make time to see me!! Yay for friends! :-)

Chia was baby-sitting her sister's kids while her sister and brother-in-law ran 41 miles. Insane. Anyway, we went up and helped her baby-sit... ie. played with the kids in the awesome gym they go to. We had a *great* time in the foam pit. Probably better than the kids!

After watching the first period of the Flyers-Canadiens game (Let's Go Flyers!! clap, clap, clap-clap-clap!), we headed back south from Park City and got the house ready for the party that Dave, Andrew, and I were hosting. Rather than refer to it as a party, I'd like to think of it more as a gathering of people who have somehow, oddly, ended up in Utah. Anyway, we had a great time reconnecting (or connecting for the first time) with people. It's great to be in a new place, but still feel like we've got some people to chillax with (ha. I just said "chillax".) Pathetically, I forgot to use my camera and take pictures of the fabulous people who joined us for the "What? Utah?" gathering, but here are a few more pictures of our house, as we continue to get it in order.

The library...

Our bedroom. Duh, Timmy's there.

The sole picture of guests at the party is this one...

At least it's a good one! :-)

Life and stuff

The past few weeks have been a mix of stress (go figure) and lots of fun. Stress because teaching is hard! And finding a job is hard! And organizing our stuff is hard! And figuring out this new ward is hard! And figuring out where to shop, etc is hard! But mostly, it has been fun, especially when I flash back to how horrible finishing the dissertation was.

A few weeks ago, we discovered the joy of going to a temple that's less than 2 hours away. In fact, it took us a total of 7 minutes from my office. And that included parking and walking to the door. :-)

Later that week, we got to see Michelle (soon-to-be-Wright) and Matt (already-is-Wright). They came out for a visit with Matt's family and to plan their wedding. They were kind enough to come down to Provo for dinner and some Sub-zero Ice cream with us. It was so much fun to see them... and return the Heart Attack they gave us before we left DE. The best part was, we used the same hearts they put on our car... when we took them off, we left them in Andrew's glove compartment. After our dinner together in Provo, Andrew remembered we had them and just couldn't resist returning the favor. It was very fun.

The next night, we got together with some of my old friends... Bryan and Niki Brimhall and Remington and Tamara Atwood. I hadn't seen Remington in about 5 years. Bryan and Niki made the trek to the wedding in March (and then missed the sealing... but that's another story). I love seeing them; we always have a good time. Anyway, they all came down from Salt Lake City and we had a fun night of dinner and playing games. Andrew had worked hard all day making the house presentable and truly fit for company.

The next night, we got to do out to dinner with Dave and Jenn. It's so nice to hang out with Dave again. Brazil was too far away!

This past week, we went dancing at the Eldred Senior Center in Provo. Yes, it was an all ages dance. The music was... about half speed, but the band was good and the dancing was fun!

This Sunday, we had dinner with Andrew's Grandpa Brown, Aunt Leslie and Uncle Bryan, some of their kids and grandkids. It's nice to feel like we're surrounded by family, even if I've never met most of them before.

Otherwise, life is a rush of prepping for class and squeezing in as many episodes of The West Wing as we can. Andrew's got me hooked.

Oh, I almost forgot tonight's update... Andrew fixed my car!

And you'll just have to take my word for it - the brake lights now work. Now, if only we could find the screw to put the top back on the gear shift...

Oh, and one last thing:

Happy Birthday John!!

Love ya!