Christmas Office Party

This past Saturday evening was Pinnacle's End of Year/Christmas Party. It was held at the Salt Palace and there were about 1600 people there! So there was little to no chance of actually seeing any of my coworkers :-( We did manage to find Justin's coworkers so we sat with them through the evening. We enjoyed a nice dinner, nice Christmas singing by this lady.... I'm blanking on her name but I think it may have been Sonya??..., and then this comedian guy (named Brian something from some season of 'The Last Comic Standing'). Despite the fact that I can't remember any specifics of the evening it was a fun night! And it was really my first ever work Christmas party so it was pretty great for my first one ever.

Where are you MJ??

Last Monday Justin and I went to the Flash Game down in Orem at UVU. Pinnacle (the company we work for) is a big contributor to the Flash so they get discount tickets etc. Anyway one of the owners of Pinnacle announced to the company that there was a good chance that Michael Jordan would be at the season opening game to square off one-on-one against Byron Russell. So naturally Justin snags front row seats asap (don't worry they were free!) just at the mere thought of seeing Michael Jordan play. Long story short... we go to the game and towards the end of the 2nd quarter they announce the half time show of MJ playing Byron so everyone goes crazy. Then at halftime the lights drop and they make this huge ordeal about Michael and Bryon playing each other. Then after a long dramatic and drawn out wait, Bryon comes out with a microphone. He starts to call for Michael saying that he is ready to play him. After waiting a few minutes a entourage of people come out of the tunnel, all guarding around this short black guy in sunglasses. Byron sees him and says he's ready to play... then he moves closer and realizes that that guy is in no way Michael Jordan (all acting on Byron's part of course) so then he say's he's over this and leaves the court. Then the lights come on and the horrible halftime show is over. BBBOOOO! I blame the Flash! I was so excited for Justin to watch Michael Jordan play that it really bummed me out. I knew it was too good to be true! The overall evening wasn't too bad, we did sit front row for the first half of the game and its always fun to get out and do something out of the normal with Justin.

Above is Byron Russell and below is Elder Anderson!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

Last night Justin and I mustered up the courage (needed from last year's near disaster) and all the warm clothes we could find (it was freezing last night!!!) and headed out to buy ourselves a christmas tree. The good thing about it being freezing was that it forced us to make quick decisions! We found a beautiful tree, albeit rather short, and with very little effort (compared to last year) she stands in our living room! We bought the tree, had it in it's stand, put up the lights and ornaments all within about 2 hours! whooohoo! We are so excited for Christmas now.. at least more in the spirit of the season. Now if the next two weeks could just really slow down then we'd really be able to enjoy this season! Here are a few pics, including my favorite new ornament that we purchased in Wiliamsburg over Thanksgiving.

We love the beach!

Aside from the Thanksgiving pictures I wanted to post all of our beach pictures 1. because I think Justin took some awesome pictures with our new camera and 2. because the beach is such a great place!!!

Thanksgiving in Virginia

Our Thanksgiving trip went by way too fast! We had a wonderful, jam-packed trip nonetheless. The biggest highlight was, of course, the great food Mom made! We had way too much food for the 10 of the family members eating together but I won't ever complain about too much foo (other than the increase in my waist line...). We hit up some stores on Black Friday, went to the Virginia Beach Aquarium, walked on the S.S. Wisconsin downtown Norfolk, had a picnic on the Nags Head beach in the Outer Banks, ate some yummy seafood, took family pictures at Sandbridge beach, drove through the Christmas lights on the Virginia Beach boardwalk and lastly traveled up to Colonial Williamsburg! Whew-and I think I'm even leaving some things out! It was a great trip, we miss the much warmer weather, the great food and the break! Thanks Mom and Dad for everything over Thanksgiving-can't wait to come back again!

Here are some picture highlights--

T-Minus 3 days and counting!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week! All the stores REALLY skipped Thanksgiving this year it seems like, the day after Halloween the stores had all their Christmas trees and decorations out. Not to mention my two radio stations started playing Christmas music on November 1st so I am down 2 radio stations until after Thanksgiving (I like to give each holiday it's due respect). Today I am finally starting to get excited for Thanksgiving. We head out to Virginia Beach on Thanksgiving Day and will get back on Tuesday. Can't wait to spend some time with the fam and at the coast. Justin is going to get his first experience of the Outer Banks and we're both (hopefully) going to see historic Williamsburg for the first time. (And maybe we'll throw some Black Friday shopping in there as well!)

We have so much we are blessed with and grateful for. I love spending this holiday with what I consider the biggest blessing in my life- FAMILY!!


We hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving Day, where ever you are spending it!

Friday the 13th

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I REALLY look forward to my weekends now since Justin is doing school each week night. Friday nights are my favorite, a sure bet that Justin won't be doing any homework so I finally get him all to myself! :-) We had big plans Friday (the 13th) evening but I wasn't feeling so great so we actually didn't do too much. After a dinner at Costa Vida, we (Justin) decided to go back to Best Buy. Do you remember back in May when we were contemplating getting this guy? (No not the flowers or the fish....scroll down till you see this.) We had somewhat given up on that venture until a more-than-generous gift was given to Justin from his company to Best Buy (of all places..they really know his taste!) So we looked at a few more options but decided to go with it.
Here's a little comparison for you guys:
The Timpanogos Temple with our old camera (from our bedroom window):
(I know it is really hard to see but it is there, way in the background!)
And here is the same shot with our new camera:

Pretty amazing huh!? I think we made the right choice, we're going to test it out a little bit more just to make sure!

Saturday was a interesting, we woke up to what looked like a blizzard outside! Thankfully that melted away by noon but WoW was it cold out! While Justin does homework on Saturday I will pick up the apartment, do laundry and go to Wal-Mart. (We are very much creatures of habit, same routine each week, same routine each weekend). I thought it was a typical boring run to Walmart but nooo! The moment I stepped outside it was cold and windy and definitely messed up my hair which left me in a not-so-great mood. By the time I made it into WalMart from my car my eyes were full of tears from the cold wind. BBOOO on super cold weather!!! Anyway... Saturday night rolls around and Justin and I decided to go to eat at the place we went the night was got engaged. I'll give you some hints:

If you guessed the Melting Pot then you are correct! We haven't really splurged on much of anything lately (camera doesn't even count, that hardly cost anything out of pocket!), especially a nice dinner. If you haven't been you should really try it, if nothing else just go for the dessert (we ordered the yin & yang chocolate fondue / white chocolate with milk chocolate---yum!). It was a wonderful dinner and fun experience, again. Last time we went I remember my left hand was permanently propped out in front admiring the lovely jewelry Justin had just given me. It's hard to believe it has been nearly 2 years since that night!
(sorry you're so dark sweetie, still learning how to use our camera!)
After dinner we were going to stop by and say hello to my sis and bro-in-law. That 30 minute stop turned into 3 hours of contentment playing the Wii. Yikes! Justin and I (or rather just me) can quickly become addicted to playing that game. Thanks Heather and Josh for tolerating us even once it was past your bedtime!! ;-)

Now it is nearing the end of Sunday...I used to absolutely dread this time when I was in school. Now it isn't so bad but I miss my hubby during the week that is for sure! Can't wait for next weekend!

October wrap-up

I have been meaning to blog much earlier than this about different things that we've done this month...but since I never got around to it-this will be a summary :-)

We found out towards the end of September that my parents bought plan tickets to come out in mid-October. My mom was out October 13-23 and poppi was out the 15-21. So they were both out here for my birthday! :-)

Unfortunately I didn't take any birthday pics but we went out to eat the night of my birthday then came home for cake and presents. So far 23 doesn't feel any different! haha I always say that though I don't feel like I ever really get any older (when it comes to maturity...I'll always be stuck I guess in a teenagers perspective??-hope not!). Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and presents! I will admit that I am going through the strangest funk I've ever been in... usually I am well prepared with different sweater/dresses/coats/shoes ideas of what to get me for my birthday but this year I couldn't really think of anything off the top that I wanted. It must be because I hardly go shopping/window shopping anymore. I hope I can find things I like for Christmas so I won't give everyone a hard time when it comes to shopping for me. Anyway...

So while my parents were out I was able to take some time off work. It was lots of fun relaxing and enjoying time with my parents. I only get to see them it seems like 4-5 times a year. That is crazy to think since when you live at home with your parents you seem them every single day. We, of course, ate at Cafe Rio (they're favorite), shopped around a little bit, went to Gardner Village. Here are some photos from our trip to Gardner Village, it was the first time I'd been there when they have the witches out so it was fun to see them all.

Matt and the llama (or camel?) having a staring contest

I love Matt's face in the above picture-click on it to enlarge it :-)
And we couldn't quite get Matt to smile for the timer :-( oh well!

We also got together for dinner/pumpkin carving or painting/smores on a Thursday evening. That was a great night-thanks for providing our pumpkin Heather! Justin and I felt for whatever reason inclined to paint our pumpkin instead of carve it. I usually love to carve pumpkins, my one from last year was the best yet (see!) ! But we were still pleased with our painted pumpkin design. Justin did the ghost, tombstone, and grass and he did a fantastic job!
Friday night we went to the Pleasant Grove production of:
It's a scary move from the 60's, the plot is about this blind woman who is getting conned and broken into by these bad guys. The first half of the play wasn't too scary but towards the end it was pretty intense. The theater wasn't very large so we could see everything happening pretty up close, even the strangling and stabbing-yikes!

Last night we went up to South Towne Mall and shopped around for a bit before heading up to Brandon and Amanda's. We go to see their cute kids dressed up in their costumes after they had racked up on their trick or treating. We watched a scary movie (Dragonfly) and ate some yummy goodies. Thanks for having us up guys-it was a very fun Halloween evening!

I was thinking about how last year this time I was just in my 2nd practicum, as a cohort in a 4th grade class. The elementary school kids were so excited to dress up and parade around the school in their costumes. Now that I am working full time in the call center for Pinnacle, Halloween was a little different but not entirely. Pinnacle did do several things for Halloween, encouraged different department to decorate and for employees to dress up on Friday, they also had trick or treating from 3-5pm. There were several coworkers that really got into the costumes and most all departments really decorated their space. I love Halloween for its decorations and costumes so it was fun to still be in an environment that celebrates as much as elementary school kids. Overall, great Halloween, great month.
On to November!