Home Sweet Home!

Well, our short three months in Michigan have come to an end and we are thrilled to be back in SLC! The first thing Chris wanted to do (besides see family and friends) was mountain bike, so he has been on three rides already...

and the first thing I wanted to do was eat at my much missed Cafe Rio, which I took care of yesterday...and will probably take care of again later this week...

We missed our friends and family so much and we can't wait to catch up!!

Hitting the Road

All packed up and read to go! Our apartment is furnished, so we only had to bring our clothes and a few other things- whatever would fit nicely in the trunk

Ruby quickly got into a routine of sleeping in the backseat of the car---ALL DAY LONG

Or else she'd just hang out back there

Some pretty serious jamming out occured along the way..{Side note: each picture I took in the car had Chris progressively more annoyed..I was loving it!}

We did a whole lot of this...Let me tell you, it was a sad, sad day when it took 60 BIG ONES to fill 'er up!! {Note Chris' annoyance of me taking yet more dumb pictures...but hey I wanted to document everything}

Our Last Hurrah

The weekend before we left we had one last hurrah in Moab. It turned out to be a blast. Chris, his bro Steve, and a friend rode one of their big scary rides and Mary (his sister) and I did our own ride.

At first I was stressed about the timing of the trip with our move on the horizon, and with my needing to square away a bunch of stuff at work, but it was short and sweet and a ton of fun. It was also great for Chris to get one last chance to do what he loves before his 3 month hiatus.

We actually bought a new bike rack with the plan of bringing our bikes to Michigan, but alas he didn't want to worry about his bike being stolen or about schlepping our bikes in and out of motel rooms across the 6 or so states we had to travel, just for some mediocre biking.

A Brief Update

Life is busy …and I have been a bit of a blog slacker, but here is a bit of what we have been up to:

Chris is half done with his MBA program, so between now and when we leave for his internship he just doesn’t have a whole lot going on. He spends his days sleeping in, surfing the internet, mountain biking, taking afternoon naps, and forgetting my kind reminders about our piles of laundry that he could attend to during commercial breaks…

(just kidding-he actually did all the grocery shopping, and spent much of last week putting together a rather involved spreadsheet tabulating the regression analysis of mountain bikes' weights vs. inches of travel, why you ask? I, for one would love to know)

We have been very busy getting our ducks in a row for our move. We leave in less than a month and are quite excited for the adventure!! As it turns out my job is going to let me stay on and telecommute from Michigan-an enormous blessing that I just couldn’t be more grateful for!

I better get my fill of Lucky Charms and Captain Crunch in now…ha ha before I am counted as being disloyal (he is interning with Kellogg’s marketing department-and most cereals I like happen to be General Mills).

p.s. I have many other pics and updates I have been meaning to post-and I’ll get to them when I can…

Recent Happenings

Ruby is now an "obedient dog"...usually
Biking Bear Claw Poppy in St. George
Dinner at the Cheesecake FactoryMy mile high Chinese Chicken Salad...oops sideways

I'm it!

Guidelines:
1. List 6 facts/habits about yourself that no one knows.
2. Tag 6 other friends and post their names at the bottom.

1. I was born with a backwards sternum, and as a child I appeared to have a large dent in my chest. I went to several specialists and nearly went under the knife until surgery was deemed unnecessary. I have met a handful of people in my life with this same condition...it's called pectus excavatum. (Mine was not nearly as severe as the one in the picture.)

2. My proudest moment to date was finishing the St. George Marathon in 2004. If anyone has ever considered running one-do it! It is an incredible experience. Funny side note-at mile 23 someone was blasting "Chariots of Fire" from a loud speaker and I burst into tears...so emotional...and looking back...so hilarious.

3.I'm a horrible logical thinker. Chris is constantly telling me I make things too hard, like adding unnecessary steps to a process, taking huge driving detours that I think are shortcuts, etc.

4.I spent a few years as a brunette and I actually felt more attractive with dark hair; however, I have this wierd identity crisis thing where I don't think I'm myself with it. I went blonder again shortly before getting married. I couldn't bear to think that one day my kids would look at my wedding album and say, " who is that dark haired lady with Dad?"

5.I have a strange fear of deep water. It's a combination of things: the unknown/the thought of getting pulled under and being far from air/visions of Jaws movies where you see the sillouette of the swimmer on the surface from the murky depths... It downright creeps me out! I would never scuba dive, and during those few minutes when waiting for the boat to come pick me up after water skiing, I can sometimes work myself into a freaky frenzy.

6. I'm a great speller.

For Fun I'll list some randoms about Chris that some may not know...

1. He is a better cook than I am...which isn't saying a whole lot.

2. He is FEARLESS; a total adrenaline junky, whether it's skiing or mountain biking. He recently came home from skiing with a tweaked knee and explained that he just had to show some younger kids what was up. He did a Rodeo 540, which he normally lands no problem, but this time he went a little too BIG and landed in a hole. He recently had an MRI to confirm what the dealio is...we are praying he doesn't need surgery.

3.He is an absolute gear snob, when it comes to skiing. He spends much time chatting with ski guys on forums, and talking with his brothers and with a guy I call "Tech Talk Tyson" on the phone...I've learned more ski terms than I ever knew existed being married to the guy.

4. He is an unbelievably caring and involved older brother. He talks to each of his three younger siblings on an almost daily basis. Once when we were dating he took me to meet his little sister and brother, Mary and Steve and we all went to a movie. My affection for him was greatly confirmed when I saw him interact with them.

5. He is extremely allergic to peanuts and also peas. We are NOT ALLOWED to keep peanut butter in the house. I thought he was just kidding when he first mentioned this...but he said one errant trace of pb left in a jelly jar could mean very bad news. I have made many a dinner...only to eat it alone because I have forgotten and put some form of pea in the mix.

6. He has a better sense of women's style than I do. He often helps me get dressed, shows me what goes together, etc.

You're It!:
Kailee Johnson, Courtney Stutznegger, Bill Park, Lucy Park, Pete Romney, and Marin Christensen...if you're out there

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

I love being up in the mountains, especially in the winter. Snowbird was truly a "winter wonderland", which is one of my favorite Christmas songs, by the way.

U Game

Here we are at the U vs. New Mexico game. Sweet Chris spent the entire game re-explaining football for me, play-by-play, and making sure I was having fun. I'm not proud to admit that I've never really liked (or understood) football...but I'm working on it.

More Europe pics...

Pretty little vineyards were all over the place in Ravello, Italy
Boat ride to the island of Capri
A plaster-of-paris mold of a body found at Pompeii
The Colluseum, Rome
We trekked all our gear on foot to church one morning to find the building empty-it was Stake Conference.

Canyoning

In Interlaken we went canyoning. It's basically sliding down natural waterfalls and jumping off cliffs into pools of water. It was such a rush!! Here we are suiting up.

Amalfi Coast

My Dad got married this summer on the Amalfi Coast in Italy-we got to tag along. It was the most beautiful place in the world. Here are some highlights. (photo 1-Chris and Sarah; 2-Infinity Pool; 3-The sisters: Rachel, Sarah & Lindsey; 4-my dad jamming on the drums).

So I've started a blog...

Hello all! I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and start a blog. Chris and I have been married a little more than a year...it's been a blast and a ton has happened-he's back in school, I stopped teaching and got a new job, we moved to Draper, became parents (well dog parents... that counts I think)...to name a few things. This is us on our Italy/Switzerland trip we took this past summer.