Surprise!!

It is not December 18th yet... but today we celebrated my dads 60th birthday. We had a surprise party for him. Because of work schedules and such it was a morning party. We met at Andys house for breakfast. My dad thought he was just going to breakfast with Andy and Jennys family. He was wrong. We surprised him! Everyone was there to celebrate my dad. And let me tell you what... he deserves to be celebrated.

My dad is one of the most amazing people I have ever known. Growing up I didn't realize how lucky I truly am. People in the community would always say to me, "You have a great dad." or  "You are lucky you have great parents." And I would just nod my head and say, "Yeah." I was an idiot. I took my family... my dad for granted.

As I got older and met new people and heard their stories and learned about their childhood it made me sad for them. But made me appreciate my dad so much more. Then I got the job at Provo Canyon School. There I heard more and more stories and I couldn't believe how most these children were treated by their fathers or grandpas. And once again I couldn't believe how lucky I was.

My dad is a very giving and selfless person. Nick tells me all the time, "Your dad is one of the most selfless people I have ever met. He is such a good man." He would do absolutely anything for my mom. He adores her and you can see it on his face when he talks to her. You can see it in the way he treats her. He has been is Disneyland I don't know how many times. Not because its his favorite place but because its my moms. The last few times he has gone he hasn't been able to ride many of the rides because of his bad knees he cant get in and out of the rides. But he goes and walks and waits in the heat so everyone else can have a good time. He goes shopping with my mom and is always carrying her bags. He drives all over the state taking my mom wherever she might want to go.

He would also do anything for his children.  Growing up he almost had perfect attendance to all of our sporting events, recitals etc. Plus working full time with teaching extra classes, city council and later Bishop responsibilities. Now he attends all my nieces and nephews sporting events and activities. He has cooked us countless meals. Including our favorite meals just because he knows we like it. I swear every time we go down to visit he cooks Nick his favorite breakfast... which is also my dads favorite breakfast. I will never forget this one time that my dad got mad at me. I can't remember why he got mad or anything. But I do remember I woke up from my nap and on the kitchen table was some flowers and a Pizza Gallery smoothie for me. He felt bad for getting mad at me so went and did that for me.

One thing I took for granted majorly was the fact my dad honors his priesthood.  Every year before school started he would give us all a blessing. He would give us blessing when we were sick. And if we ever needed one for whatever. I can't believe how lucky I am that I got that. I never thought about life without the priesthood. I just knew if I needed a blessing he would be there.

Sadly not everyone has a dad like mine. A dad that honors and respects his wife. Treats his kids with love and respect. Puts everyones needs before their own. Not everyone has a dad that can give them blessings when they need it. And it breaks my heart knowing that. I often wonder, how did I get so lucky? My dad... oh my gosh he is so slow sometimes ha. All seven of us kids make fun of him and tease him like crazy! But we do it because we love him.... and cause its easy lets be honest. But honestly I cannot imagine my life without him! I am so glad not only do I get him in my life but I am also so glad Nick gets my dad in his life. And I am glad that one day our children will have the best grandpa ever! He is a great example to all of his kids, in-laws, grandchildren. And we all adore him!

Happy Birthday Kim-bo!

The Holidays... so far.

Well.... I love this time of year. I love ALMOST everything about this time of year. I am not even going to pretend I love the cold or snow. In fact I hate the snow. I know I live in Utah so I should get over it... but I wont get over it. So I will complain about it. Anyway.... I love everything else. I love the Christmas lights. I love watching T.V. with the Christmas tree on. I love pulling out the coco-motion. I love Christmas music. For real . I love it. I love all the traditions.  And I love all the cute wrapping paper. ha. Here is what our December has looked like so far....

Decorating

Movie night with hot chocolate

Temple Square

Love.

Alexs Birthday

Thanksgiving 2013

Once again this year I dropped the ball in taking pictures on Thanksgiving. Oh well I did get some.

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with Nicks family. His grandma and her sisters planned a big Thanksgiving dinner with all his cousins and everything. There ended up being like 60 people there. Because April had her cute little baby Easton a few days before Thanksgiving neither her family or Nicks mom were able to make to the big dinner. But it was still a lot of fun. Nicks cousins from California came. And we always love hanging out with them. We wished they lived closer.

There was a turkey shoot before we ate. Nick did really well. He wasn't missing. Nicks cousin Brady on the other hand.... couldn't hit one. His four year old son hit one before he did. Grandma Diane even joined in on the shooting ha. It was pretty epic. Once it too cold for me to handle me and Jannae took her kids and waited in the car. It was a lot warmer in there. After the shooting was all done we went and ate dinner. After dinner we enjoyed a talent show and then pie. Well I got cheesecake... I'm not a pie fan. Then back home we went.

We spent the night in Bountiful. Just for fun and so Alex wouldn't be home alone. The next morning Nick and I went to Best Buy just to look around at all the deals they had going on. Then after Nicks mom made it home we went to Nicks aunts house. There we basically had Thanksgiving dinner again. And played some games and such. We love hanging out with the Gurr family. We wished they would visit more often.  Then Nick, his mom, Alex, and me went to the late showing of Catching Fire. I loved it!! I like the book better... like usual. But it was still a delight.

Baby Easton

Nick and Brady

THAT post

I have so much to be thankful for! But daily I find myself taking these things for granted. I have food in the fridge and a job a nice warm apartment. But I find myself complaining. "I don't want to eat anything that we have." "I don't want to go to work." "I don't want to clean the apartment." But I really am so blessed. Not everyone eats dinner. Some people can't find a job. And sadly some people don't have a place they call home.

I'm grateful I have the knowledge I have of the gospel. I'm grateful I get to go to church every week and partake of the sacrament. And I'm grateful for the atonement. It blows my mind every time I think about it. And so thankful that families are forever. I can't imagine my life without that knowledge. Life would be so sad.

I'm also so grateful for my family. I was born into an amazing family! My parents taught us right from wrong. They support us in everything. Not many people can say the raised 7 kids in the church and all 7 went threw the temple. They are great examples. I'm blessed with great siblings. They are some of my best friends! I love hanging out with them. And I know I can always count on them for anything! I also married into a great family. They also support us. Help us whenever we need it. We are so lucky we live close to Nicks mom. She is so great to us. We love going over there for Sunday dinners. Or just hangout.

I am grateful for my great friends. I have the best friends ever. I love them all. The ones I have had since I was born to my new friends and all the ones I met along the way. I'm so lucky! They understand me... And they love me anyway. I know I totally suck as a friend most the time. I don't deserve all my friends.

And of course I'm grateful for Nicky. I know I know... Every girl always says how great their husband is and how lucky they are.... Etc. But it's so true. I'm so lucky!! Growing up I made countless lists of what my husband was going to be like. Nick doesn't match my lists... He is so much more. He has so many more qualities that I love that I never put on my lists. I probably should have put them cause I can't imagine a life without these qualities now ha. I'm grateful that my family adores him! They all love him so much and I'm so glad. I love that I can count on Nick. He is always willing to serve not just me but everyone! I'm grateful that its so hard for me to wake up and go to work in the morning cause I just want to hangout with Nick all day. I'm glad that we like to hangout and do everything together. I'm glad that I know how he feels about me. And I never have to wonder. He shows me and tells me everyday. I can't put everything down that makes me grateful for Nick. I'm just grateful he is my best friend and my husband forever.

FALL...

Who doesn't love the fall?! I dare say no one!! Some of my favorite things to do in the fall are driving in the canyon and looking at all the leaves. I think the bright yellow ones are my favorite. I love going to corn mazes... Cornbelly's is my favorite. I know I might be "too old" to love something so childish like Cornbelly's. But I love it! I basically love anything that I get to do with Nick and the rest of our family. And so far this fall I have got to spend a lot of time with Nick and our family.

We spent some time at the State Fair with the Cox family. Nick and I also went on a day trip to Promontory Point and Antelope Island. It was so much fun!! I haven't been since I was a kid. Nick had never been to Promontory point so it was a fun adventure. Nick and I also got the chance to ride up the canyon. It was so beautiful. We went for a little walk and enjoyed all the colors.

State Fair

Promontory Point

Antelope Island

Millcreek 

I also went with Stacie and the girls to Gardner Village in West Jordan. I think that's what its called. I also went with the Durrance family to Cornbelles. like I said... I love that place. Some friends in our ward had a Halloween party that we got to go to. 

Girls Night

Cornbelly's

Our Flying Experience

Before we left for Florida Nick and I decided we would share a suitcase. We only wanted to pay for one bag. Because we decided to share I also decided to bring my purse for an extra carry-on. Everyone is allowed one personal item like a purse and a carry-on like a back pack. So we get to the airport and we go and check in. The guy checking us in turns to me and tells me I am only allowed one bag. I look at him confused and a little annoyed. I was thinking to myself "Um no... this isn't my first rodeo." But I said to him, "My purse is my personal item and my back pack is my carry- on." And then he tells me. That everyone is only allowed a personal item and they have to pay for carry-ons!! I was not happy. So I shoved my purse in Alex's carry-on. Then he turns to Nicks mom. And tells her the same thing. And then tells her that her carry-on is too big and will have to be checked in. Right after we saw him let a man go by with a HUGE carry-on way bigger then Nicks moms. So we kind of put up a fit. So he was all fine measure it here to see of its too big. So we put it up to the measure thing... sure enough it was too big... by less than an inch! So he told us you can risk it and see if the flight attendants make you check it in. But he kept telling us we might as well check it in now. But we didn't. And guess what it was fine. Then it took him about another 15 min to get our tickets figured out. Everyone behind us in line was mad at us. Um hello... this guy sucks!

So then we get on the plane. And the flight attendants tell us they will be coming around to give us our complementary drinks.... oh for $2.00. Wait what?? Complementary drinks are complementary that means free. Not with Frontier. I'm sorry am not about to pay $2.00 for a can of pop. When I can get a huge fountain drink from Burger King for $1.00. They don't even give out water for free! Lucky for me I had a drink I got in the airport with me. They took forever to take off and we had a connecting flight that we had to run to.

That was just our flight to Florida... our flight home went like this. Lucky us we flew with United on our way home. So we got a carry-on and personal item. And we got free drinks. But we had a connecting flight in Chicago. We had a hour lay over. That turned into over a 2 hour lay over because of bad weather. So we finally get on the plane. And then we are waiting forever because the run ways were backed up because of the weather. They ended up flying us to Denver. When we got into Denver we had missed the last flight into Salt Lake. So United gave us coupons for a hotel. But we didn't have any of our luggage or anything. Luckily in my carry-on I had a change of clothes for me and Nick. And my hair stuff. The hotel supplied us with Shampoo... Toothbrush and other hygiene things. The next morning we had to wake up super early to catch our shuttle to the airport. I was a little said we missed our flight in Denver and not in Chicago. ha.

So here is the lesson I hope you get from this... DO NOT fly Frontier. There might not be a perfect airline out there. Things happen. Weather happens. But there are airlines that are better than Frontier. They are just a joke!!

Florida 2013

Nick and I had so much fun on our trip to Florida. Before I get into it let me first say... DO NOT fly Frontier Airlines! They are a joke! Anyway....We got into Florida really late Saturday night. Then we woke up bright and early Sunday and went to Hollywood Studios. It was so much fun!! I loved Rockin Roller Coaster! I also liked The Great Movie Ride... or something like that. It was like a ride and a show all in one. Rylee was so funny during the ride. She thought the show was real life. It was hilarious. The whole atmosphere of Hollywood Studios was pretty awesome.

After Hollywood we went to Epcot. It was cool and interesting seeing all the different countries. I especially loved seeing the countries that I actually have been to. It was fun trying all the different foods and just exploring. The next day we started the day off in Epcot too. Did more exploring and rode some rides. 

After Epcot we went to The Magic Kingdom. I loved the Magic Kingdom. I loved it because it was the Disneyland that I know and I love. But different. I loved all the fall decorations! I was in love with all of it! We spent the the next night there too. SO. MUCH. FUN.

Day three we spent most of it at  the Animal Kingdom. That was pretty dang awesome. It was Nicks favorite park. It was cool cause it was the Zoo mixed with rides! We loved it! Expedition Everest was awesome!! We rode it like six times that day. We went on a safari! ha. 

The next day we had a day off. And we needed it. We were so worn out. We just hung out by the pool.   And went mini golfing and drank pina coladas. It got us well rested for Universal Studios the next two days.  

Island of Adventure was amazing!! I loved Harry Potter Land! And Butterbeer was so good! The rides we so awesome! I can't say enough good things about it! The other rides and "lands" in Universal were fun too. The Hulk was pretty dang fast and crazy. And I have never got so wet on any rides before. We got SOAKED. But I can't say it enough... I loved Harry Potter! 

Our last day we went to the Universal Studios. It was a day full of shows and rides. And we ended it at the Hard Rock. Of course. The perfect way to end the trip. 

The flight home is a whole other story!!