Thank Goodness it's Friday

So a couple of weeks ago, Mary Lu and I decided that we were feeling a little antsy. I haven't taken some time off for awhile, so I was feeling a little tired of work. I somehow convinced Mary Lu to join me, and we decided to play hooky on Friday. We took the day off to have some fun! We decided to start early by hiking Timpanogos Cave. I haven't been there for several years, and it turns out it's a lot steeper than I remember! Either that, or I am so out of shape. Which is definitely the case! :) But we had a lot of fun. Here are a few pics from our adventure....

A Wicked Weekend

I was super excited this last weekend because I finally got to go to Wicked at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake. It was incredible!

 It was also great to have my parents with me. This was their first "Wicked" experience, and it was fun to spend the day with them. This has always been one of my favorite plays, so I was excited when I heard it was coming back to SLC. Turns out that because of copyright laws and the Wicked folks, we are not supposed to take pictures inside the theater. Period. Doesn't matter if it's just of you, and not of the stage. They don't allow pictures. At all. I know this because the ushers had to tell me multiple times. For some reason I kept thinking I was sneaky enough to get away with it. I blame it on Dad. He kept trying to convince me to be more stealthy about it. My Dad even took a picture, and totally got away with it. But as soon as I tried....Bam....the usher would be there. How is that fair?? :) So Dad took this one of me and Eliz. Nice job Dad!

 Before the play started, we took a little walk around City Creek. Fun times. It is amazing what the Church has done to that area. It is a great addition to downtown. We didn't spend a lot of time up there because we wanted to head straight home to spend time with Julie and Kellie while they were in town. But I'm glad we went. We had a great time!!

Although, after seeing the play, I'm starting to envy Glinda. How fun would it be to travel by bubble!

Adult Bumper Cars

A few years ago, I went to visit Julie and Dan in Rexburg, and had my first experience with a Demolition Derby. Unfortunately I had the WORST migraine that I've ever had that night, and spent most of it laying on my sister's lap before I finally left early and went back to their house. So this weekend I thought I would give it another shot. Some friends and I headed up to Heber on Saturday night for some food and fun. We stopped at the Dairy Keen for shakes (of course!), and headed over to the stadium. All I can say is WOW!! Here is a picture summary of the experience.

Before.....(Let's just say that Mary Lu got a hold of a blue pixie stick) :)

1 hour in....

2 hours in....

3 hours in....

In the end there were several drivers that ended up in the hospital, and other severe wrecks that luckily ended with no injury. I've always been one to love riding bumper cars, but the adult version of the game is not my idea of fun! All I can say is that they sign themselves up for it, so it's hard to feel too bad. But I do have to say that half the fun was the audience. I sat behind a guy with a shredded shirt with questionable language on it and a great looking mullet, who sat and drank his beer and cussed and cheered. Welcome to the Demolition Derby!!

But the company was great!

Long time coming....

So I know it has been awhile. A LONG while. But I thought it might be good for me to start blogging again. It would be a good way to scrapbook what's going on in my life. I'm not very good at keeping up with my own life, so I thought blogging might help.

This week has been pretty busy! I spent last weekend in Reno, NV, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Conference. I can't say it was the most exciting conference I've ever been to, but it was an experience. I would have taken some pics, but there was nothing really there to take pictures of. The entire first floor of our hotel was a casino. Even though I don't gamble, I will say that I miss the coin slot machines. Or at least the sounds they make. They do everything with cards now. So boring. :) Apparently I also missed President Obama and Mitt Romney by a day. They both came to speak, but I decided to come home. But here's a few pics from my trip.

This is our booth in the exhibit hall:

I also saw this, which I thought was pretty funny. The picture isn't great, but you get the idea:

Awesome Ward Activities!

I've been lucky enough to live in such a great ward. We've done a lot of fun these for the six months that I've lived there. One of our great activities was a couple of weeks ago at Soldiers Hollow. We got to go sledding for a couple of hours. It was really, really, really cold, but I loved it! I got thrown into the tubes a couple of times (as you can see....), but I still had a great time. I have to admit that I didn't win any of the races, but I came pretty darn close!
Kellie was nice enough to lend me her hot snowpants and coat, so that I wouldn't look like a dork!

Another one of our activities was ice skating at the Peaks Arena. I haven't skated in years, so I got up my courage for the activity and actually did really well. I didn't even fall once! I think I've found a new hobby. Well.....we'll see about that. I'm not sure I liked it that much!

California or bust!!

A couple of weeks ago, I got ran away from this weather for a few days and hung out in sunny California. I could make you all jealous by saying that the weather was fairly warm, I got to hang out on the beach, and I got to visit the Mouse for a few days. But it wasn't without our share of adventures. While we were messing around on the beach, the keys to our rental car jumped out of Joseanne's pocket and somehow washed away in the ocean. We were lucky that her parents were there and were able to help us get another rental car while the first one was sent to a locksmith to make a new key. I hope that is one adventure that I will never have again. As for the rest of the trip....Well let me show you.

This picture was taken while we waited for the new Finding Nemo submarine ride. Needless to say, it is not one of my favorites; but it was definitely worth the experience.

We were crazy enough to go to the Princess breakfast at Ariel's Grotto. We felt right at home.

This is where we stayed in Newport Beach. We walked down to the beach several times, and even had Coconut Macademia Pancakes at their restaurant/bungalow right on the beach. It was a lot of fun!

A Long Time Coming.....

So I know it's been a long time since I posted anything, but I do have good reasons. For a long time I didn't have an available computer. But I promise to do better now. :) Things have gone really well this year! I have two roommates, Joseanne and Elizabeth. They are great! Joseanne is from Utah and Elizabeth is from Colorado. We are all done with school, so we are all full time working women. We keep ourselves busy. This is a picture of us a few months ago. I am definitely excited for the holidays. It will be nice to have a few days off just to play!

Happy Birthday Nicole!!

Yesterday was Nicole's birthday, so of course we had to throw her a big party!! It was our Christmas/end of the year/Birthday party. I ate way too much food, but we had lots of fun. We ended the night by watching a Christmas movie. And of course I had to turn around and get up super early to put out the breakfast, so we will see if I can stay awake today!

Here comes the snow!

I guess we can't avoid it any longer. Here comes the snow! Of course, we really didn't get that much. In fact, it never really stuck to the ground for very long. But we did get a few flurrys and the temperature is sticking around the 30's. I now have finally made use of the winter coats I brought with me. We're expecting more snow tomorrow, so I guess we'll see what happens.

Christmas in November?!?

We got super excited this last week over Thanksgiving and we got our tree up and decorated the lobby. Michelle and I have a new favorite activity. We like to bring a good book and sit in front of the fireplace at night with the Christmas lights surrounding us and read. It is awesome!



On Thanksgiving Day, I got a message on my phone asking me to give a talk in Sacrament Mtg. It was my fourth one this year! I'm getting pretty good at it now. Not only did I have to speak, but I was the closing speaker. It was a good opportunity, but I'm glad it's over! :)

New York, New York!!

It's been pretty crazy around here lately, so I forgot to update my blog. Here are a few pictures from New York. It was an awesome trip! We had a great time. I was pretty tired by the time I got home, but it was worth it. Now we are getting ready for Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

These pictures were taken at the Today show. We all had matching sweatshirts and signs. Most of us actually got on TV because we were in a really good spot. Elijah Wood was on the show that day and he walked right by us. It was pretty cool. The hosts (Meredith, Matt and Al) each came over at different times and took pictures with our group. We had to get up super early to get there, but we had fun!




On Saturday, Nicole and I toured lower Manhattan. We took a ferry to Staten Island that went right by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. You can't go to New York and not see the Statue of Liberty. That's just crazy! :)



On Thursday night, we went to see Wicked. It is a broadway play about the Wicked Witch of the West and how she became wicked. It was sooooooo awesome!! We bought the soundtrack, and have listened to it many times. I have seen a few broadway plays, but this one is definitely my favorite. All of the girls dolled up to go to broadway, so we had to take some pictures. On Friday, Nicole and I went back to broadway to see The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We really liked it, but Wicked was definitely the best!




One of my favorite parts about New York was just walking the streets. There are so many fun things to see there that you could miss them if you weren't paying attention. Radio City Music Hall is not far from Rockefeller Center and Times Square. These blocks were decorated with lights and Christmas trees. The big tree at the Rockefeller Center had not been lit yet, but it was fun to see it up anyway.



Have a Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Our Nation's Capitol-Welcome to DC!!!!

I just got back yesterday from a quick 4 day trip to DC. It was so fun! My parents and I just visited there in May, but there is never enough time to see everything. The first picture is, of course, the White House. The President was in town this last weekend for Veterans Day. We actually got to see him. He gave a speech at Arlington Cemetery on Saturday. We also saw him in his car along with his security detail. :)



One of our favorite spots was by the WWII memorial.



Our hotel was in Fairfax, VA. It was at the end of one of the metro lines. When we were ready to come home for the day, we called one of the host couples and they came to pick us up at the metro station.

Wakin' up with Krista :)

Today was just one of those lucky days where I get up abnormally early to get breakfast ready for everyone. It is getting a lot slower now, so I've been able to come in at 6am rather than 5:30am. That's been nice. These are just a few pictures that I took this morning.

I have never made coffee until I came here. I am now the expert at using our coffee machine (I'm only the expert because no one else ever uses it, not because it's hard!). Michelle had to work at 7am, so we sat and ate breakfast while waiting for everyone else to get up. I actually enjoy doing breakfast because I am done with work for the rest of the day, and it gives me other projects to work on. I help with inventory and actually go to the store to stock the food. Keeps me entertained!

One picture is of my house, in the rain. Not an uncommon sight around here. Especially in the morning!

Winter is here!!!

So I guess Fall couldn't last forever, but I was kind of hoping it would. I'm not ready for the snow yet! We had our first snow flurry this last week. The leaves have all fallen off the trees and the temperature has gotten a little cooler. Michelle and I went out for the first snow storm and took pictures and danced around for a little while.

This last weekend was really good. Nicole's parents came out here from Utah, and so we got to know them a little bit. On Friday, I was at work when the fire alarm went off. The students were lighting candles on a birthday cake, and it set off the alarm. We had to evacuate everyone and the fire department came. We can laugh about it now, but it was all pretty crazy that night. Here are some pictures showing what things are looking like right now.

The Valentown Museum

On Saturday night, I went with Michelle, Nicole, Rachel, and Chelise to the Valentown Museum. It is a Museum that was built over a hundred years ago. Someone was murdered there, and they still believe that it is haunted. They even had the Ghost Hunters come from the Sci Fi channel to check it out. People say that they hear music playing and that they see strange things all the time. They do tours of the Museum, but they also do a Haunted House in the basement. It was really cold that night, but we still had a lot of fun.

As I was standing by the museum, trying to take a picture, one of the witches came up behind me and scared me to death! I took off running back to my friends. My friends insisted that I take a picture with her. Come to find out, she was the curator of the museum. It was pretty funny!

And still there is more...

This is the site of the Boston Massacre. This event was a catalyst for the Revolutionary War. It was blown out of proportion to be used as propaganda. This spot is located in the middle of a street in downtown. It was pretty cool.




Last Friday, we stopped in Boston's "Little Italy" for lunch. I got the traditional spaghetti and meatballs. It was really good!



These pictures both come from the Boston Commons. It is a public park in the middle of downtown. They have a small pool there that is filled with water in the summer and then turned into an ice skating rink during the winter. They have a playground right across from it. We stopped to have a little fun before our tour started on Friday.
On Saturday, they had a pumpkin festival going on. There were thousands and thousands of carved pumpkins. They were trying to break a world record. It was definitely crowded, but it was fun to walk through and see all of the different carvings.

More from Boston :)

While in Boston, we ate at two taverns. The first one was an Irish Pub where we ate a brunch. I had an Irish omlette. It was really good! This picture is of the 2nd one that we went to for seafood. I played it safe and had a really good salmon. Michelle got a lobster and Nicole got hadduck (or something like that). Don't worry, we only had water to drink in case you were wondering. :)



This picture is one of the buildings at Harvard. It was a really beautiful campus. It's sad, but one of the first things I thought of when I went there was Gilmore Girls. You will understand if you've seen it. We didn't actually have time to wander around inside the buildings, but we did get to see quite a few of them. Of course we had to stop by the statue of the man Harvard (who the school is named after) and rub his shoe for good luck!



There is actually a funny story that goes along with this picture. As you can tell, we stopped by Fenway Park. I didn't actually buy that flag that I'm holding. It was sitting on top of a garbage can that I'm standing next to in the picture. That is why I'm only pinching the ends of it. I don't know what I was thinking, but it made a great picture. :)



This picture was taken in one of the most popular tourist attractions, Quincy Market. There are tons and tons of shops, restaurants, and booths inside and outside the Market. This is where I bought my Boston sweatshirt. We stopped here a few times, and there was always something going on. Once there were break dancers out front and we stopped to watch their performance. The replica of the Hollywood bar set from the show "Cheers" was also here. It was a pretty happening place.

That's all for now, but tune in later for more! :)