Lately...

What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been! Gage and I drove down to Utah from Spokane last week and we were able to stay in Utah for a nice, long visit. We were happy to be here over the 4th of July since there always seems to be so many fun things going on during the week of the 4th. We had a few family barbecues, hung out with friends, golfed a few times (Gage), ran in the Plain City 5K, and (of course) watched the fireworks at Weber High.

Sadly, Gage had to fly back up to Spokane on Sunday in order to start school the following day. I stayed in Utah because there are about a million things I need to do before school starts!! My mom has been a HUGE help to me this past week in helping me prepare for teaching. We went to my school (Kanesville Elementary) and cleaned my classroom inside and out. It took about six hours and it was quite the job! The next day we went in and did more organizing and later went to purchase a bunch of supplies, books, puzzles, games, bulletin board stuff, and EVERYTHING else school-related. The best part about spending all that money was that it wasn't MY money - thanks to my awesome previous job, I got to spend without a conscience! :) Love that!

Gage has been working hard at school and the GU law clinic; he has been quite the trooper being in Spokane all by himself. Since we've been married we haven't been apart for more than 1 day, so these two weeks will be a little challenging! I get to go up there for the last time in a little over a week and then we will do the BIG move and finally be in UT for good. It's actually really bittersweet - I love Spokane and it will be a huge transition to be back in the Utah bubble. :)

There are many random pictures that follow.... I just decided to pack a bunch in from the past few weeks since I haven't had much time to blog.

4th of July Festivities:

I miss you, Gage!!

The Arnold boys.

Meg and Rach - we love our hammock!

The P.C. 5K - as I mentioned on Facebook, I had been battling a terrible bug/food poisoning/24-hour flu the entire day before the 4th, so we finished a little slower (24 minutes) than we hoped because I was so dehydrated. Gager was a sweetheart though and waited for me!!!




At the fireworks!

Love, love, LOVE my dogs.

Last few weeks in Spokane:
Meg, Rach, and Sam.

Rach (pictured above), one of my best friends, got me this cake when I got my job. I'm sitting by her adorable little boy, James.

Me and my good friend Steph. This was the day of her baby shower and also the day we had to say goodbye to each other! :( No fun!

The weekend before we came to Utah, we went to the Iron Man Triathlon in Cour D'Alene with our friends Heather and Tyson Dobbs (and their cute little boy, Brody). This was AMAZING. The Iron Man athletes complete a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a full marathon (26.2 mile run)!!! It was inspiring to watch; those guys (and girls) are like superhuman or something!!

So that's about it!! We hope all is well with everyone; we are loving the summer and hope you are too!

Softball Champs and Easter Sunday

Well, the boys did it again! Gage and his friends managed to win Gonzaga's intramural softball league for the second year in a row! I got to watch a couple games, but it has been really cold up here so far this spring so I didn't get to see him play as much as I would have liked.

The team did a great job and I know Gage was a little sad to see it end! He probably won't be playing too much softball this summer because he is loading up on credits and just won't have the time.

We had a great Easter Sunday. When we got home from church, Gage instructed me to close my eyes because he had an "Easter Suprise" for me. When I finally got to take a peek, I found that he had skipped our last church meeting to come back and set up my own little Easter Egg Hunt!!! It was great!
Earlier that week I was telling him how I miss being a kid at Easter time because I used to LOVE finding my Easter basket and searching for eggs. So he took it upon himself to hide a bunch of eggs (with candy and notes inside) around the apartment and then at the end of the hunt I found an Easter basket in the dryer. I seriously felt like a kid again and it made the sting of being away from family on Easter a little better. :)
Later that night we had an awesome Easter dinner with our good friends James and Rachel and their little boys. We had a riot as usual and ate lots of good food. I made a peanut butter pie and it was pretty good. You can find the recipe here...just make sure to add chopped Reese's on top. ;)

In other news (if you call this news), I finally finished HARRY POTTER! It took me quite a while to finish it up because I got started with the whole series when I was student teaching (spring 2007) and it has taken a few years for me to finish (I promise I'm not THAT slow of a reader, it's just that I usually read 3-4 other books in between each one). Words cannot express how much I LOVE these books! The whole sci-fi genre is totally outside the norm for me, but I totally fell in love and I cannot WAIT for the upcoming HP movie this summer. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, click here....if you care, that is.

This past Friday was also Gage's last day at the AG's office. It's crazy to think he's been there a year! Since finals are coming up and he won't be working there this summer, he decided it was for the best. He's happy about having more time to study for finals, but he will definitely miss his experience there. I can't believe my little Gager is going to be a big 3L....it's crazy how fast time has gone by!! Yikes! Yay!! ;)

To all who's reading, we hope you had a wonderful Easter and we hope you are all doing well!

Christmas Break 2008

The slideshow above chronicles our recent trip to Utah over the holidays. We did so much and took SO MANY pictures, so I thought the slideshow would be the best way to go. :) We had a great Christmas and enjoyed a jam-packed 10-day trip full of family parties and reunions with friends. Aside from the usual holiday festivities and spending time with family and friends, highlights of the trip include:
- going to the Dancing with the Stars Tour with my mom and sister
- seeing the Zags play the Utes at the University of Utah on New Year's Eve (Tickets to see a Gonzaga basketball game here in Spokane are near IMPOSSIBLE to obtain unless you are a student; Gage can go, but he can only get ONE ticket.)
- celebrating Gage's grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary
- catching some fantastic movies (Marley & Me + Valkyrie + Bedtime Stories)
- running into and hanging out with old friends

As always, it was great to see those we love and we are so happy we could be in town for the Christmas holiday. It's always hard to leave and get back to real life, but I must say that I'm getting better at goodbyes. Last year at the end of our Christmas trip, I bawled and BAWLED when I had to say goodbye to my family, but I am proud to say that not a tear was shed this year! Hmmmm.... it only took a year and a half to get to that point. ;) We hope everyone had a great Christmas and we wish you all the best for 2009!

SURPRISE!!

Gage and I decided to be a bit sneaky this Thanksgiving and tell our families that we wouldn't make Thanksgiving again this year because of Gage's crazy school schedule. Nobody suspected anything because Gage's finals are coming up soon and we missed Thanksgiving last year. Little did our families know that we had planned on coming to Utah for Thanksgiving since the first of October because Gage's school schedule actually worked out perfectly this year; he was able to turn in his final LRW paper before the Thanksgiving holiday.

So we set out on the road EARLY Wednesday morning and surprised my family that night. On Thanksgiving Day, we showed up at Gage's family's big Thanksgiving breakfast and surprised his family. It was so good to see everyone and it was so fun to see the reactions of all the people that were NOT expecting us! Both of our parents were soooo excited and so very surprised. Gage's mom even shed a few tears!

After breakfast, we spent the rest of Thanksgiving Day attending two more feasts - one at Gage's grandparents' house and one at my grandparents' (can you say WEIGHT GAIN? har har!). The food was wonderful and it was a blast to be with our families again for Thanksgiving. Here are some pics from the big day...






On Friday, my sister and I helped my Grandma decorate the Christmas tree and put up Christmas decorations. This has been a Christmas tradition since I was a little girl and I was so happy to be there for it this year! We got to spend the day with our grandparents and it was fun to get in the Christmas spirit (sadly, I don't do a TON of decorating here in Spokane since we are in Utah for the holidays).



We were also in town for Gage's mom's birthday. She was so happy to have all the kids in town for her birthday! Here she is with all of her boys...



The surprise was so much fun and the 9 hour drive was not bad at all; it's a beautiful drive and the weather was awesome. We were SOOO thankful to be able to go home for the holiday and also to get there and back safely. We are so thankful for such wonderful family members and their kindness and generosity. We are also thankful to be able to fly back in T-minus 3 weeks for Christmas! Wahoo!

Veterans Day

I must say that I am forever grateful to the men and women who risk their lives each day to serve our country.

If you’re feeling especially patriotic and looking for an inspiring read, I'd recommend picking this up...


Simply put, it is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time.

Lately....

October sure flew by, but it was quite eventful....

Most recently, we attended a couple of Halloween parties with some of our good friends here in Spokane. On Halloween night, I got my husband (a Fremont alum) to dress up as a male cheerleader..... a WEBER HIGH male cheerleader! Sorry Silverwolves; you've got a traitor in your midst.

Don't worry, we didn't have to cut Gage out of those polyester pants!! Are those tight enough for you? Thanks to my mom for providing such AWESOME (and not to mention, FREE) Halloween costumes by packing her suitcase full of my old cheer stuff when she and my dad visited a couple weeks ago!!) We had so much fun hanging out with friends and laughing at everyone's great costumes!

Click on the collage to get a better view.




The night before Halloween, we went to another Halloween party and Gage dressed up in his famous SUMO suit, but the costume deflated when the batteries ran out. :( We got the costume up and running again and I ended up wearing it to our firm costume party Friday morning.




Last week, Gage and I had the opportunity to see the traveling Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera. It was my first time seeing a live show of Phantom, and I was really impressed. We debated and debated about whether we should go or not because tickets were a little pricey (for us, mind you), but Gage loved it as well and we thought it was worth every penny.

The weekend of the 17th, we got a wonderful visit from my parents! It was so good to see them even though they were only here for the weekend. We saw a local production of Oklahoma, went out to eat a few times, and I got to go shopping all day Saturday with my mom (one of my favorite things to do). On a side note, when my parents were here, we also saw the movie, "Secret Life of Bees." The cast is quite impressive and the movie is really pretty good. Definitely a tear-jerker in parts, but it did not disappoint.

Anyway, that's about it! It's been a fun and eventful few weeks! For the nine of you that read this blog ;), I hope all is well for you and please be proud that I am actively working towards decreasing the amount of time between posts. :)

Dillon, MT

We just returned from a weekend of fishing in Dillon, Montana - a place I had never heard of before meeting Gage. It's been a longstanding tradition in Gage's family to visit this little town to go fishing. This happened to be my first time fishing in Dillon and I was happy to be a part of the family tradition.

Our fishing spot, the Big Hole, is an absolutely beautiful place. It was very secluded and peaceful; I fished a little bit, but really enjoyed relaxing by the river while reading my book.

We had so much fun hanging out with Gage's family; they are always so good to us and it was wonderful to be able to see them during our little weekend getaway.


Gage's grandpa is an expert fisherman; between him and the rest of the crew (Gage and his brothers and dad) there were A LOT of fish caught. I tried fishing a few times, but eventually gave up when I snagged my hook (for the 5th time) on rocks and objects OTHER than fish. Oh well, at least I tried..... maybe next year. :) This Labor Day weekend flew by so fast; it was great to spend it in the little town of Dillon with those we love.

Family Fun

My parents picked us up from the airport on Saturday afternoon and then we caught an early dinner in Layton. Afterwards, Gage went to visit some old softball buddies while I went back home with my parents.


Upon arriving to my parents’ abode, I wasted no time and jumped into the hammock set up in the backyard (after saying hello to my siblings and dogs of course). Even though Spokane is a beautiful place, Gage and I often talk about how much we miss the mountains in Utah. Throughout the trip, we spent a lot of time relaxing in the backyard and enjoying the summer nights and gorgeous surroundings.


Along with Utah’s scenery, we have also missed our wonderful families. On a few of the days, Gage and I split up during the daytime to do our own thing. It worked out great because we each got to do exactly what we wanted during the day and then we'd meet up at night to do something together with family or friends. Gage spent many days at the golf course - he was was quite the golfer this trip! He ended up going four different times! Once with friends, once with brothers, once with his whole family, and once with my dad's golf group. He really enjoyed spending time with his brothers; they are a lot of fun. I love Gage's brothers too; they are always cracking me up (Jason is missing from this photo).

We were also able to visit with his grandparents and other relatives on a few occasions; it was so good to see them again!





When Gage was doing his thing during the day, I exercised, chatted, laughed, lunched, and shopped with my mom and sister.

Each morning, my mom and I would either go walking (on her usual 4-mile route) or go to yoga (yup, my mom is a YOGI) and I had a blast spending so much time with her. In fact, I already miss her!

On the evenings we were at my parents’, I walked the dogs (Pete & Chance) with my mom and dad - something I have really missed doing since being away!

One of the nights we walked the dogs and it turned out to be a family affair (I even got GAGE to go exercise!). We came back to the house and stayed up late laughing and chatting. Good times.