Monday, August 30, 2010

Our One Year Anniversary Road Trip!

SO since Randall and I didn't have the opportunity to spend our one year anniversary together right on the 15th of August, we got to celebrate together 5 days later by taking an awesome road trip!! IT WAS FAB! Our first day, I met him in Cleveland and we drove a couple of hours to Toledo where we stayed at Maumee Bay! We stayed at this cute lodge that was gorgeous and right on Lake Erie!

The next day we had a long haul to Omaha, Nebraska so we had to get going on the road. We had a great time talking, singing, and laughing in the car-great times! When we got to Omaha we were SO excited to hear that the Winter Quarters Visitor Center was still open until 9 pm! SO we made a little pit stop and got the grand tour of the neat little visitors center they have there. We also went to the grave site they have there because we think it had a few of our ancestors! SO that was an awesome little pit stop we made. That night we ate a really good pizza place named "Sam and Louie's" even though Randall pronounced it Sam and Louis' ha! very funny. It was SOO good, I wish they would put one in Provo but that's probably not going to happen.

The next day we hit the road bright and early again but we made a little detour and went to Mount Rushmore!! It was sooo fascinating and I was really happy we had that opportunity to go see this. We walked around and took some pretty pictures and then watched an informative movie about the making of it. After that, we headed to Casper, Wyoming and relaxed in the nice hot tub at the hotel.

The next morning, we made the long haul back to Provo, UT. Oh, but don't worry, we got a nasty flat tire on the way back and had to stop in Rock Springs to get 4 new tires! Our tires were totally shot! Entonces, we had to drive on a spare from a little way out of Casper all the way to Rock Springs! Quite a while! So, we finally made it back to Provo and we arrived just in time to go see Toy Story 3!! We had advanced free tickets but we were scared we would run out of time before it left the good theater, but we were able to see it and it was the perfect way to end our WAY fun one year anniversary road trip together. LOVE my hubber.

OOOh look at that wata!
SUCH a pretty sun set plus I like this pic bc I look somewhat skinny
Ahh bunner
Winter Quarters!
Look it's Brigham Terry! Maybe we should name our first son Brigham?? No? Yes? Who wouldn't want to name their child Brigham

I love this sculpture because it truly depicts what the pioneers had to do to get to Winter Quarters
I marvel
BIG faces! So they look really big but they really don't seem big as you scroll down to the next picture...
TINY faces! Great times at Mt. Rushmore!!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Crystal's 1 year Amazing Book Review



SO this past year I have read some pretty dang good books if I say so myself and I'm going to write a very short(ok..medium) review for each of them so I can remember how much I liked, disliked or didn't really care for the book. I LOVE READING. I'm going to be honest though, my opinion on most books is that the beginning of a book is like a trial..it pretty much sucks and you don't understand why you have it, or in the books sense, you don't know why the author picked this beginning because its so slow and sometimes confusing....but as you go through the book and work at it, or like a trial, you get through it and learn from it, it becomes much much better and the ending is successfully learning from your trial or in the books sense, enjoying the book because the author finally gets to the point and makes the very slow boring beginning worthwhile or in a gospel sense, the Lord allows you to learn from the Trial and molds you into becoming a better person. Deep? I know, ..ha! yeah right, but I really do think that's a good analogy..., I'm also going to try and go in order from when I started reading all these books--about a year ago, oh and WARNING, if you don't want to read all the reviews..there is a lot, then just skip to the books you haven't read and maybe I'll convince you to read them or.. run from them

Deception Point-This was a very interesting book. Like I said earlier, the beginning to me was a bunch of words all bunched together on a page, but as I read on, of course the storyline got more interesting and the puzzle pieces came together, the climax is amazing and the plot is very unique. I would recommend it, especially to those Dan Brown fans.
The Actor and the Housewife-This book is a crack up. If you want a good laugh, but also a good cry, be sure and read this book. I LOVE it. So witty and fun, if you're Mormon, you'll understand a lot of the setting of the main character Becky, but if you're not Mormon, you should read it to understand more of what Mormon housewives do..even though I think she has a little bit more of an extravagant life than most Mormon house wives...I really did ball my eyes off though..that is a warning. It might offend some Mormons as well with how overboard she goes with her relationship with Felix, but it's fiction! It's not real, so whatev.
The Last Lecture-Pretty much everyone should read this book before they die. SUCH an amazing story of a very impressive man that learned a lot in life and passed this knowledge on. I think I pretty much cried every 5 minutes but then again..I cry in like every book and movie...MUST READ
The Goose Girl-So when one of my close friends asked so "what is this book about?" I said, "Well...its about a princes that talks... with.... animals-BUT-it's really good!" Ha, that does sound funny now that I say it, but the book was just presh. Of course its original plot was by the Brothers Grim but I really think Shannon Hale turns this book into a creative fairy tale making you so consumed in each chapter. So WHO CARES if she talks with animals?! Power to the princess.
Princess Academy-This book is also by Shannon Hale, yes, I was on a Shannon Hale kick for a while, go me. But anyway, this book was very well written and definitely had you taken in at once. This book also got that gold medal award (I can't remember what that's called) so obvio it must be good. I especially like the main character and her lover boy..its like they're childhood sweethearts, but I guess literally they are because its not like they get that old by the end of the book, maybe 18 years? even younger? Cute book fo sho
The Thirteenth Tale-Amazing story! This was another book that had a very slooooooow beginning, but as you got more into it, the more addicted you became to read it because the whole time, a lady is telling the story of her life, and every part she adds is like adding a little more frosting on the cake and makes the ending one of the best endings I've ever read with how much you figure out the tale and why the story the lady told was so peculiar. It left you in awe.
The Hunger Games-Pretty much one the best books I've ever read, if you haven't read it, I don't know why I'm friends with you, ha, j/k! But seriously, I think I read this book in like a couple of days because I couldn't put it down, and it wasn't just he way Susan Collins wrote the book, it was the actual storyline and how enthralling it was. Katniss is one brave girl, I'm pretty sure I would have been slapped in the face on the first day in the arena and probably would have fallen down dead. I seriously can't wait for the movie.
Catching Fire-SO obviously, the sequel, a little disappointed in Susan Collins for the lack of creativity, but whatev, all power to her for making such a good book, it didn't matter how unoriginal the 2nd book was, cuz I'm sure she still made millions. But of course with her writing style still pulls you into the dark hole of reading non-stop, and the ending was kinda confusing, BUT it definitely gets you pumped for Mockingjay!!! Can't wait my peeps.
The Help-OH MY GOSH, this book is so good! I loved this book, the book was not only innovative in it's writing style, but let you witness what black maids had to go through back in the early 1960's and how one courageous educated girl could help make the difference for a lot of these black maids. I guess it makes sense why it was on the New York Best sellers list. Go Help!
Three Cups of Tea-Um..couldn't get through it, probably got through the first chapter and then it was due at the library...wasn't worth the late fee..no siree, maybe if I was a history major..or liked non-fiction books better..i dunno, I guess this book shouldn't be on this list as well since I didn't technically finish it...ah whatev.
The Lost Symbol-Very intense book. Again, couldn't get into it at the beginning, I could still see how it was interesting but it didn't entice me like Davincii Code. However, I knew it would eventually get there because my hubster read it and said it definitely got better, so I kept reading and OMG I couldn't believe some of the stuff in there!! Very exciting, very on the edge stuff, will make a very good movie, you better believe it. Makes me want to go to D.C.
Dear John-As most of you know, Nicholas Sparks' books are of course.. romance books, but not the raunchy kind you get at used book stores, it's cute love dove stories that make you want to puke-I mean--wonder at this kind of mumbo jumbo..but this book--to my astonishment was actually one of my more favorite books by Nicolas Sparks. It was interesting because you learned a lot about autism and what its like to have an autistic family member. The ending was sooooo sad, but maybe for the best? This is probably bad or low of me to say, but I liked the movie ending better, even though the movie did not follow the book that well at all, just like most of his books that are turned into movies end up being, but I guess you'll only understand this if you've read the book and seen the movie.
Best Friends Forever-I read this book because I had finished my other book and would be flying all day so I definitely needed some reading material. This book was.....interesting and hard to describe. I didn't like that she made the characters swear a lot and there was some pretty crude things that happened that I didn't apprec. so much, but it was just a very different book, the style, the writing, the storyline, all very different--I think because the storyline was semi-interesting and because she's a very good author, it did make it hard to put down. That's all I'm going to say on that.
The Guernsey and Potato Peel Pie Society-This was an.............interesting book. I don't know how to describe it, it was EXTREMELY hard to get into because you didn't know who was who or who was friends with who and what exactly was going on until half way through the book since it was all written in letter format which I'm not a big fan of..but ya know. By 3/4 of the way through, I really got to know the characters, and some of the stories from WWII were very sad, but interesting. The ending is soo cute, it almost makes it worthwhile trudging through that book to see the very last letter written. Its cute and pretty witty :)

SO-there you have it! My one year book review! Averaged about one book a month..could do better, but I'll get o.. I've enjoyed almost all these books and hopefully you guys have or will soon :) If you have any other book recommendations that I'm definitely missing out on, please let me know!! I want to hear! 8 days til Mockingjay!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

I can't believe it's been a year!!

Well I just wanted to say Happy Anniversary to my hub bub Randall and to myself. We are awesome! We just completed one year of marriage together and it flew by! (must have been fun) Its just so crazy to me! It was really cute because he vicariously-through a friend- left pink roses (my fav) on my porch so when I got home from grocery shopping, they were right there! So presh! Its special days like these that make me so grateful I did not meet my husband on the Bachelorette, true love all the way baby! It really is a shame that we have to be apart from each other on this blessed day but I will see him this Friday when I meet him in Ohio and I am SOOO excited!! We will then make our little road trip back and celebrate our one year of marriage together :) We're even making a pit stop in Mt. Rushmore!! SWEET! Oh, and we don't have the top of our cake but I'm sure my mom will get that out to us somehow..whether we eat it or not..that's another story.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

I LOVE ST. LOUIS

SOOOOOOOO, I know that my trip to Natty's Graduation in Idaho is actually supposed to come before this because it happened before this trip but since I don't have those pics yet..that's kinda not happening until I get them..from my mother... and I don't really know how long that will be..so we'll see. ANYWAY, i went to St. Louis this past weekend and it was FAB TIMES and no joke bout that! I just absolutely LOVE my St. Louis girls and their hubbies and I LOVE visiting them! I seriously am proud to say I am from that wonderful city and anyone that is anyone should definitely take a little splendid stroll right over to St. Louis, Missoura! I've already seen like ALL the sites so I was just happy to hang out and spend time with my forever friends and remissness on old times and celebrate new ones! Wow, I sound like an overly positive person right now, but whatev. SO see pics below for good times and great oldies--hey! that fits! that's totally a St. Louis station and I've known these peeps forever now

For din din on Friday night, we went to Tai Cafe, the food was seriously amazing, but too bad I waited 10 minutes more than everyone else to get my food..whats up with that?!? They gave you so much food, we ate the leftovers for lunch the next day
Look! Ame and I
That night we went and saw Footloose at the Muny! It brought back sweet mems from when I went to the Muny as a little girl, it was way good too! Everybody gotta Footloose! On the way home, we stopped at Mcdonalds and got cookies because they mentioned cookies in the play and we all started craving them..I don't remember a time when we didn't stop for a for a midnight happy meal/snack time at Mcdonalds when I went to St. Louis to visit..ha ha..yay for that
On Saturday morning, we went to breakfast with Jamie's dad and Cynthia and then headed to the Citygarden with just us girls, it was way fun, it's a new park they have in St. Louis with just outside sculptures, St. Louis just gets betta and betta
Um...this is totally a stature of Pinocchio, but they called it something else..whatev, they don't even know. I guess Pinocchio was a creep-o movie anyway...
Look at them hot girls...this sculpture was like a dinosaur shaped somethin or other
This pic is too cute to boot
Ame...how do you do it?! You look exactly like the walking guys!
Jamie had to put chappy stick on this little guy because he had really chapped lips, poor thing :(what a nice girl she is!
Look, we're all on a bunner!
Yay, we're in the middle of a beautiful park waterfall, and don't worry, those really are kids playing in this city park pool..and that's disgust...
Too hot to trot..Babs, are you doing sign language for the camera?
This is fab Jamie and I with our prego friend Laquisha
Yay! Jamie going down the slide! We went to St. Charles pool that afternoon and it so fun! They had all these slides and a big pool to swim in. Jamie and I went back in time and had hand stand contests, Jamie won by half of a point. She's rad like that.
If you look up close (too bad we can't zoom on this thing), you will absolutely crack up at this picture, at least we all did at the dinner table when Amy realized what my face really looked like up close
This was either when Babs came down gracefully or she flipped over and totally wiped out. Don't remember. Afterward, I convinced Amy to go down the super high slide that goes straight down, go Ame! Brave girl! It was soooo fun!
So Lucas didn't want me to show this picture, but I can't get enough of this picture; every time I look at this picture, I seriously laugh, and I don't know how you can't laugh at it...oh Lucas, you're hilar
On Saturday night, Amy and Connor were little angels and made all of us dinner! We had delish barbecued pork, sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob! oh so yumalicious! They are good little chefs those two! OH and lets not forget the clumpy brownies that I made with wafer bars...everyone just LOVED them..ha
We always switch the seating assignments so wives and hubbys aren't necessarily next to each other, absence makes the heart grow stronger.
We were chillaxin on Ame's couch after dinner and then watched Avatar..well the first 15 minutes and then we all got tired and went home. The next day we went to church and then ate some good Mexican food. Then I took a flight home and I left with more sweet mems, next time my hun bun will have to join me in these great times! Love my St. Louis peeps!