Yee Haw! Go Nashville!!

Right after Brandon graduated we headed out to Nashville with Sheila, Brent and Ian! They were so kind to take us with them :) We had so much fun all together! Here are some pictures from our adventurous vacation.

You have to try on a Cowboy hat when you are in Nashville.....

Brandon even got the chance to arm wrestle Elvis.....The winner got a kiss from me!! :)Nashville's beautiful sunset.... On Mother's Day we got the chance to go to the famous "Pancake Pantry" for breakfast with Brent's family. The food was delicious! I had the famous sweet potato pancakes with their cinnamon syrup. So good! The line was out the door for this place!!! State Capitol Brandon, Ian and I wondered the city one afternoon and got the chance to see the capitol and a nice memorial park This was Brandon's favorite quote.... He thought about it for a while looking off into the distance like that. We then jammed out with Elvis for a bit....nice guy. Here is Sheila and Brent enjoying our nice boat ride around the famous garden atrium And of course we went to the Grand Ole Opry House!!! Brandon and I got the chance to do a jam out session. He played the key board and I sang. We were a big hit. They are asking us to come back soon. Tickets will be expensive I'm sure of it. I was made for the stage....

The last thing on our agenda was to make it to the Loveless Cafe. We heard they had amazing homemade buscuits and jam. All the rumors were true!!! We loved the buscuits and the service was the best! Our server did some magic tricks for us and then the manager of the resturant gave us thier $25 cookbook for free! They were so good to us. If I ever make it back to Nashville, I will be going back!
Our happy family...

Brandon Graduated!!!!

It is a little delayed but.... Brandon graduated!!! I am so proud of him. He has worked so hard balancing school, work and me :) Now he can just focus on work and me for a little bit!

He really looks like a graduate in this picture :)....

Here is the crew that came out to support him... Thank you so much!

Catching Up Again....

I know.... it has been awhile since our last post. I'm sorry to the few of you that check our blog regularly, I wish I could promise that things will be better in the future but I am sorry to say it probably won't. But here we go in catching up on the last few months... Enjoy!

Draper Temple Open House with Sheila, Brent and Ian

We had the great opportunity to go through the Draper Temple open house with Brandon's mom, step-dad and brother. It was beautiful! I'm so glad we were able to experience it together.

Linzie Gwen Christensen

My beautiful niece Linzie was born!!! She is so adorable and is now way bigger than when this picture was taken. Congrats Jared and Kristee!

Valentines Day Brandon treated me well on Valentines! He got me a dozen red roses and two new purses. We were able to set our camera up and take this picture of the two of us..... Brandon is lucky enough to have some long arms so he could hug the chair and me at the same time :) Pretty awkward.

Kalai Concert My friend Crystal and I decided to surprise our husbands for Valentines Day with a concert from our favorite singer, Kalai. It was amazing!! We couldn't have put it together with out all the help from family and friends. Thank you all for making it happen!

Here we are with our new friend Kalai....

Sledding with the Embley's Tradition has it that we go sledding once every winter with the Embley's. So here we are making it happen. We had a lot of fun!

Here is Rachel, Ally, Katie and Sarah all going down on one tube...

Jacob discovered that their dog, Nash, was more like a horse and could pull him down the hill...

Yes, we made this snowman....

Heidi didn't want to let go....

Snowboarding with Steve S. Brandon and Steve got a chance to go snowboarding together this year! I won't go with Brandon so other people need to. :) Steve was really tearing it up....

Happy Birthday Sheila!

We celebrated Brandon's Mom's 50th Birthday this year!!! We all went out to Asian Star to celebrate. It was a great time!!

Us with the birthday girl....

St. George with the PortwoodsWe finally were able to get a way for a weekend and go to St. George! We were so happy that the Portwoods were able to join us. We had such a good time together! The weather was amazing!

We did the adventurous "Crack". Here is Crystalyn and I preparing to go through...Rob took some deep breaths and made it through...We also did a little biking.... I look like I am having a great time, right? Now how do I look????....Embarrassing as it is... I did not last long on the bike. I'm not quite sure what happened?? Maybe it was the heat, or the fact that we had just eaten or maybe the huge mountain we rode up was just too much for me. But what ever it was, I thought I was going to pass out. I made Brandon stop and I found this little place to sit for a while. He kept telling me to get up, I think he was embarrassed cause cars were slowing down to watch. ha ha!!!

Brandon is quite the master on the bike....

It took some convincing to get Brandon off the bike. He was having the time of his life popping those wheelies.... Lets pretend I took the picture late when he was coming down and not right when he got up :)

Kenzie's First Haircut
I was lucky enough to give my niece, Kenzie, her first haircut!! She was so cute when I was cutting her hair. Look at this face....

Taylor Andrews Hair Show And finally.... my first hair show!!! Above are all the model's in our group. We did the hair, costume and make up for each model. Inspired by the artist Georgio O'Keeffe. Below is the model that I worked on....

Doesn't she look amazing????

View of her outfit....

I was so happy that all of our ideas came together!!! Our model, Emily, looked great! She was a great sport and wore her hair like that for 14 hours for us!! She did mention that she had a slight headache.

Charelle, Me, Emily and Ally

Here is the group of us that put Emily together!

Park City Adventures

This is the first year in a long time that I have not had a season pass to one of the many resorts that surround us in this great state. Snowboarding/skiing has always been a huge part of my life, and always will, but this year it needed to be put aside as other responsibilities took it's place. However, when opportunities present themselves, you can always find me on the slopes. This month I had the opportunity of riding Park City Mountain Resort with my brother Robby and his girlfriend Amy...It was a blast!

Yes, I did survive a full day on the mountain with these two Artichokes (both attending Scottsdale Community College, home of the Artichokes)!

On January 10th a unique opportunity came my way. My little bother ran into an old family friend of ours who's son was currently working at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew I was on one of 4 Olympic Bobsled tracks in North America.

This is the consent form that I signed releasing the park of all liability even if I were to suffer an injury due to their own negligence. Becky got quite nervous after this...

This is Becky being scared for my life.

Robby and I prepared to experience what was going to be one of the greatest thrills of our lifetime.

After getting situated in the sled at the top of the course I told the others that I wanted to get the best time of all the sleds in our group (5 sleds). The employees pushing us away accepted that request and pushed with all their might launching us onto the track. The first hundred feet or so the sled steadily increased speed. The first two turns were great as I was tucked in the bobsled position embracing my neck with my shoulders and grasping onto my handles. As time continued I soon found myself grasping the handles harder and harder. Turns came so quickly that my knees were thrust from side to side of the sled. The force was so powerful that every turn caused my head to be thrown down into my lap. After ten turns or so I remember wishing that the finish line was the next thing in our path. Four more turns later the driver pulled on the brake and we made it safely to the bottom...and yes, we were the fastest sled that night with 52.35 seconds. I will never forget this experience as we reached speeds of up to 80 mph. My neck mas sore for several days (from trying to resist the force) and my knees were banged up a little, but this ride was definitely worth it!

Christmas and New Years 2008

This year Brandon and I celebrated our second Christmas together as a married couple! It was great. I for some reason didn't take as many pictures but here is what I was able to get. We have a family tradition of getting matching pajamas every Christmas Eve. Here we are taking the classic pictures that we do every year since I can remember....

Those are the normal pictures. Recently we have liked to spice them up after with some tiger poses... (um what are you looking at Mera??:) This year we took it a step further... (ha ha Mera and Jason's faces are my favorite:)

Christmas morning..... No, we didn't get that dog. That would have been a fun Christmas surprise though. :) That was actually my parents Christmas surprise five years ago.

And for some reason that was all the pictures we really took Christmas day. But to recap in words..we spent our day traveling around visiting family. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at Uncle Sterling and Aunt Diane's place and then spent some time with Brandon's Dad, Bill, at his home. Then we headed up that evening to Park City to enjoy Christmas with Sheila, Brent and Ian. We had a great time visiting everyone. That evening, however, we had a little scare as we drove home through Parley's in the snow storm. I attempted to take a picture of the horrible roads but it does not do justice. Luckily for Brandon's amazing driving skills, Bill's 4 wheel car that he let us borrow and for answered prayers, we made it home safe!

New Years!We spent New Years this year with Crystal and Broc. It was great. For anyone that knows Crystal has to know that she does not go easy when it comes to throwing a party. She went all out on us. She made an amazing dinner and had the place all decked out. It was wonderful. Thanks Crystal and Broc for such a good night! The stroke of midnight....

Quick Update

It is possible that it is time for a new post! :) Things as always have been busy for Brandon and I. I recently quit my job with Del Sol and decided to pursure a dream that I have always had, go to Beauty School. I have enjoyed the challenge and have learned a lot. Brandon recently finished his second to last sememster at the "U" and came out shining with a 3.8. We are very excited for this next semester to be his last! Other than that we have been enjoying the holidays and spending time with family. My sister, Cathy, came in town from Seattle and I was able to spend a lot of time with her while she was here. We had a lot of fun. I am waiting for Brandon to download the pictures from the holidays so I will have to post those later. But I can't do a post with no pictures so here is one from a few months ago when Cathy came to visit. We are enjoying a Midnight feast from Del Taco and Wendy's. Pretty sure we were all pretty sick after this, actually we were all pretty sick while we were eating it. But it was fun :)

One more pic....my Del Sol family! This was my last day at work. Heather was so kind to make these yummy pumpkin cake dessert. They were so good! I miss these girls so much!