Parties Galore!

SO, Christmas parties have definitely begun! Actually..I think they have already ended as well. Last week we had 4 Christmas parties in a row!! It was fab! We first had a Christmas party for one of the organizations that is affiliated with Randall's major. I think it was a real estate one. They served really good food, had great socializing, and good speakers. (Ok, so maybe the speakers were a little boring but whatev, the desserts kept me occupied.) It was held at a place call Noahs that has an indoor ice skating rink on the 3rd floor!! Pretty nifty!

The next night was my work's Christmas party!! SO fun! We all went to Tucanos! Tucanos is a place that serves delish Brazilian meats with a fancy dancy salad bar--not to forget the best Brazilian Lemonade in the world! SOO amazing!! We talked and chatted with others and had a splendid time! However, later that night I did not feel so hot from the meat and it pretty much kept me up all night with a sick belly and way into the late morning the next day as well. Oh, but don't worry, it pretty much affected 2 other people from my work as well so we're pretty sure it was one of the types of meats...however, I still LOVE Tucanos and by late afternoon I was feeling better.

Friday night we had our ward Christmas party!! It was oodles of fun! Our calling this past semester was to be on the Activities Committee in our ward before it got disbanded so it was GREAT TIMES planning the gig. Randall and I were over the food so we ended up ordering from BYU Food to go which had pretty good food but the only negatives were A.) They got lost with the delivery and couldn't find us even though our building was right across the street from them. B.) They dropped a tray of chocolate brownies that couldn't be fixed so the substituted pumpkin bars in their place (not as good) C.) They forgot the chocolate cream pies so we had to somehow get a hold of them and they delivered them late. Other than those 3 minor inconveniences ;) life was good. We went through the food quick--young married students-go figure, and then we played these awesome Reindeer Games! They're like the minute to win it game show!! Randall and I helped set everything up and then we gave 3 million dollars to the winners! They were so excited! Ha-they wish, but they did win nice cocoa cups from Sams that we picked ou! We were running around making sure the food was good and then cleaned up afterward but the whole night was pretty much a blast! Go Wheelers! (co-chairs)

The last and best party of all of them was of course OUR party!! Now, if you're reading this and you weren't invited, its either because 1. I forgot to invite you or 2. you live too far away to be invited. SO don't feel bad or sad or offended..just get o. OH but it was a blast! We had an "Appetizer and White Elephant Party." Now, we were thinking..."Oh we'll invite a million people because probably only half can come because its the holidays and people are busy with other stuff." OMG, it was a packed house..it truly made me want to buy a house..like asap. We were expecting maybe 12..but I think about 18 or 19 showed up! It was awesome! I felt really bad b/c our apartment is itsby bitsy, BUT I was cool with it b/c most of everyone there had about the same size of apartments as well and could relate ;) As everyone arrived, we set up the appetizers and started eating. They were all scrumptious! We socialized and ate yummy food for a while and then we decided to play our white elephant gift exchange! It was so great. You can check out the pics below :)

Yay! Right before the party started!! We were getting everything all set up. We made this yum dip and delicious pin wheels!! We just LOVED our appetizers! Oh and my double jointed arms look kinda weird..look how long my hair is getting! Almost to my butt-->yeah right

Some peeps enjoyin the grub

This is my bro chattin it up with his lova, jk, they're just friends, I love Ben and Karin's faces in the background.

It's the Ohio Crew! Some of the friends Randall grew up with

Once we started the White Elephant Gift Exchange, Dave picked first and chose the Victoria's Secret bag--he of course got a Jacob poster and LOVED it, I think it's actually hanging above his bed now..haha

Camille was soo happy to get this bright and colorful, as well as educational United States Map Puzzle! I think she went home and worked on it that night

Scott was sooo happy with his Where in the World in San Diego game...unfortunately, we stole it and its been added to our game collection...sorry Scott!

Karin was so impressed with the Wednesday Letters book, she read the synopsis on the back in a heart wrenching kind of voice way and pretty much fell in love with the book the moment she saw it...sadly, it was also stolen by a huge Wednesday Letters fan

This pic is classic b/c you catch Jake and Liz's facial expressions perfectly. They hate popcorn and that's what they opened..sad times! or Happy times for us b/c they left them at our house?

Bun was so excited to open weird DVDs and play dough..too bad it was stolen 2 seconds later

Tyler loved this picture of a butterfly or flower or something..can't really tell, I'm pretty sure he put it right next to their wedding pic on their shelf at home ;)

Funnily, that's a word? Humorously, Ben won this creepy doll statue and had to keep it in the end b/c honestly, who would steal this?

Anyway, after the fun and games of White Elephant, we attempted to play Kuponk--the white elephant game John ended up with--having to deal with bouncing a ball in the cup in weird ways and it was great :) We all had a grand time and I'm glad we could throw a fun party, even if it was a little cramped...

Yay for Parties Galore week!

Turkey Week

SO Turkey Weekend was great this year. We thought we would be stuck going to Mimi's Cafe on T Day because all of our relatives were going to Vegas, however, we ended up being invited by my awesome brother Royce and his wife Heather to spend it with her family so we did! Don't get me wrong, I think Mimi's is amazing and has some darn good food on Thanksgiving, but we were way more excited to spend it with family--even if we're not "blood" hahaha, Rhett? Anyway, it was great!! We headed to Salt Lake on Wednesday night and watched the Game Show Network b/c we love it and who doesn't? Then on Thursday, we got up and Heather and I made a chocolate pie and green bean casserole..she made most of the pie but it was fun cookin it up together! This green bean casserole was FAR better than the regular one you make, no joke! We chilled most of the day and then headed over to Heather's parent's house where we enjoyed lots of food and more food and played fun games and spent a great afternoon with Heather's family.

And then came Black Thursday (not Friday)....

Don't you worry, right after Heather's family's house, we went right over to the mall where we got the deals of a lifetime at GAP!! Of course the mall was way ridiculously over crowded and people were waiting outside of Gap to get in b/c there were already too many people in the store and they couldn't break fire code, BUT Randall waited 2 hours in line to check out!!! Ok, so you might be asking..um..Crystal..why didn't you wait in line???!? SO, I went to get hot cocoa and by the time I got back I would have had to wait in this huge long line to get in the store so I figured I would just go roam the mall and see what was going on....poor honey :( BUT it was well worth it and we got some AMAZING deals on nice pants--since I really needed them--and they were all HALF off!! Anyway, I was kinda done with shopping by then and was WAY tired by the time we got home--12:30 am...so we hit the hay and slept in! Randall got up at 7:45 am to get a few Christmas Presents for others but I was mostly done..

Later that day we went and saw Harry Potter 8 or whatever number its on and it was WEIRD! But..it was still good and Harry and Herminie need to get o! Anyway, that was a lot of fun and we then went to Tai Garden for dinner which was SOO good! We've been before but we always love eating Tai food. That night we headed to bed because we were SO excited to go to Arches National Park the next day!

Arches was wonderful!! We just did a day trip because we're not all intense hikers so 3-4 hours over there was plenty for us :) It was pretty cold in the shade but pretty nice in the sun...so overall the weather wasn't too shabby! The sites to see were SOO cool and I'll explain a little more below

Amazing! I think this looks like King Tritan's castle in Little Mermaid...but not underwater..obviously

us in front of Falling rock or rock on cliff or what was it called again?

Randall made me crack up in this pic..that's why my face is in the daaaark

Us in front of falling rock

Heather is so happy in this pic because she's realized how strong the tips of her fingers are

This is totally a leaning tower of pisa picture!

Right before we had this picture taken, our legs were cut off and now we're all little people

Ahh hon bon in front of a breath taking view

This is falling rock? maybe? I'm sorry i should remember the names of all these but most of the time we just made up the names of the rocks anyway..maybe that's why I don't remember..

Me right in front of Delicate Arch! I'm so close I can touch it! Ha, jk, we didn't do the long strenuous hike cuz we didn't need anyone passin out..BUT we went up to the look out point and we got some great pics..good enough, right?

Look at them classy brothas

It looks like Royce is at the pyramids or something..

We chilled on some rocks for lunch...the view was amazing

This, by far, is one of the coolest things at Arches! It's butt rock!! I don't know if its officially called that, but I think it may be because when I googled it, this pic came up since I didn't get to take an actual picture of it! Pretty amazing what these arches can look like..

I think this was window arch or something? I'm probably wrong....but I like the pic

Even though you can see us here, we just thought it was neat that we could practically be in the arch! go us!

Landscape Arch was an inspiration for me to go to Arches because it may not be around when my future kids are grown up! It's soo narrow..it's pretty much not going to be an arch in like 20 years..I am SO glad I got to see it..pretty much one of my favs.

Us in front of Landscape Arch--Royce looks like the unabomber

Overall, the weekend was a blast and I'm soo happy we got to do all that we did, Arches was truly a site to see and I was very grateful we had the chance to go. Yay for Thanksgiving 2010!

Happiest Place on Earth-other than the temple

So back in the day, Disney was offering a FREE DISNEY DAY PASS if you did a day of service! It was pretty much an amazing deal, why wouldn't anyone take it!? SO we followed in Royce and Heather's footsteps and we gave service at the Aquarium here in Utah (I think it may be the only one). IT WAS SOO FASCINATING! Actually...we just folded booklets and cut out pretty pictures, but it was SO worth it and we had a good time :) From the pictures you can tell we had a blast! We then got a free tour of the aquarium--so cute!

Look at that cute little moose I'm about to cut out

This is Randall folding pamphlets, such a good little worker!

Our next step was to plan the trip! We planned for a weekend in October and we were on our way! Right when we got in, Natty and John picked us up and they took us to the condo. We got to hang out with them that night and then they had to be on there way later that night :( We wished they could have stayed but they were going to use their Disney Service Pass in Florida. We had a fun little time with them and Hyrum! He's getting so big! We were saddened by their leave but we headed to bed once they left because we had a big day ahead of us! Woo hoo! I was so excited! Oh, also my fab mom also got us matching shirts as you will see in the pictures to come! We were so cool, someone even asked to get their picture with us!

Little Hyrum is walking now! Well..with help, but he's doing so good!

This is such a cute pic of Daddy and son!

Mother and daughters! My mom just LOVES smiling that big, I think she wanted to be like Patty

Anyway, we headed out that day to California Adventure and had SUCH a good time! We got on almost every ride and hardly had to wait in any lines because it was a Friday and in the middle of the school year. The weather was also gorgeous! Couldn't be any betta! We actually went to Disneyland in the morning since Adventure didn't open until 10. I think my favorite rides at California were Soarin, Screamin, and the Buzz Lightyear Ride--OH so fun! We kept busy riding all the rides, even though I did get sick on Mickey's Fun Wheel (not so fun) and then we headed out for dinner.

This was the happiest Chinese man I've ever seen!! He must REALLY love the materhorn!

Matterhorn was so awesome, the line was so short that morning, we went twice!

Nothin but incredible..so muscular and his face was twice as big as mine

Pluto is such a cutie pie

We all LOVED the safari ride!

Who's gonna buy us? We are SOO popular and fun (we're posing as toys if you can't notice)

Woody is running away because I punched him in the face..jk, I would never do that!

YAY Mickey!

Randall is so sneaky

Ah look at us, Mickey and Minny Mouse couple! We should have been in the Mickey Mouse Club with Christina and Brittany!

Aladdin's Palace!

Stocker Photo!

This pic is hilar because it shows exactly how mom was feeling--FREAKED out, I don't know how she was so scared when the rest of us were just plain nauseous

After a fun day at Adventureland, we headed to Hunington Beach to see Sergio! I had never met Sergio before but my mom and dad had met him on a cruise they took earlier this year, and when he found out we would be in town, he offered to make us a true Brazilian meal! We made it to his awesomely modern and cute home (full of Brazilian culture) where we got to meet this fabulous man! He seriously is like a cute little Martin Short but Brazilian! He cooked beef stroganoff (Brazilian Style of course) and it was delish beyond means--I was talking about it for days on end afterward. He also made this really good potato salad that was out of this world! After dinner he showed us some pictures of his homeland in Brazil and promised he would be our tour guide if we ever made it down to Brazil--I, of course, was already thinking of the next available time we could go to Brazil..hahaha, afterward, we walked along the beach since he lives right on the beach and it was breathtaking! After we said our goodbyes to Sergio, we headed back to California Adventure to see the light show! It was sooo good! I think its called World of Color? Pretty much amazing since all the pictures were being reflected off water!! SOO beautiful! We slept really well that night since we didn't get to bed until about 1 in the morning and we were exhausted, but still ready and excited for the next day at Disneyland!!

Us with our amazing Brazilian friend-Sergio! Look at that awesome tapestry on his wall!! It's 3D! This home was definitely not child-proof as you could tell..not that we had children there..I really don't know what the point of saying that was..

Mickey's Fun Wheel! Except it isn't very fun, it just makes you sick if you ride it, BUT it does look pretty here :)

Look, that's water!!

We got up pretty early on Saturday so we can get on as many rides that morning before the crowd showed up. We got on almost every ride that day and some of them we got to ride twice such as like Indiana Jones!! Pretty much my fav (and it freaked me out) We also got to see the Disney Parade and it was waaay cute. All the Disney characters were dancin! We got as many pictures we could with characters-even the Disney Princesses! We had a fun filled day and I could barely walk by the end of it because it was soo jam packed full of rides, but we were so pleased and happy this trip could turn out so well. We left early that next morning and headed back to Salt Lake. YAY FOR DISNEY!!!

We loved this pumpkin..Mickey was winking at me

We are ALL princesses, ....or princes..whats with this weird pose?

Yay-Castle! Way smaller than Disney World...

SO Everyone dressed up that weekend and OMG this couple looked as if Jack and his girlfriend came right out of Nightmare before Christmas and went to Disneyland-amazing!

Haunted Mansion! they dressed it all up Halloween style and it it had the theme Nightmare Before Christmas--one of my fav rides!

Can't wait until next time!