Park City

Back in April when we celebrated our 2 year anniversary, we were supposed to go hot air ballooning. But the weather didn't cooperate, so we rescheduled for this weekend. It was definitely worth the wait because the weather was AMAZING!! And even though it was pretty expensive, it was worth every penny!

Ever since we went to the balloon festival last year for the 4th of July, I have been in love with hot air balloons. They are just so beautiful and inspiring. I knew that I had to get up in one. I was a little afraid that I would get motion sick, but I didn't at all! It was such a calm, peaceful ride.

If you have never been to a balloon festival, you NEED to go to one! This year the balloon festival is July 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at 6:30 am on the Bulldog Field (1100 N. Freedom). 6:30 is pretty early, but it is sooooooo worth it! We are going on the 3rd and I CANNOT wait!

Here are some pics from our adventure! Rog got to help blow up the balloon. It was HUGE! The ones at the festival are private balloons, so they only fit 2 or so people. The one we went in fit 12 people! There were 2 balloons from our group. I liked being in our balloon and being able to see the other one.

After our balloon ride, we rode the Alpine Slide and visited the Utah Olympic Park. At the olympic park we got to see real athletes training, walk through the museum where they have lots of cool hands-on activities (I got the high score on one of the games), go on the Xtreme Zipline (the world's steepest zipline), and watch the Flying Ace All-Stars Freestyle Show (the athletes do flips and other tricks into a pool). It was a fun place to visit!

SYTYCD Top 16

This week there were so many good ones, it was hard to pick a favorite. I really liked the Broadway (even though Phillip lacked in technique), the Rumba (with Melissa and Ade), and the Waltz. But my favorite was Randi and Evan's Contemporary choreographed by Mia Michaels. It was all about Randi's butt. Pretty funny! Enjoy!



I guessed the 3 couples that would be in the bottom 3 and I was correct on all of them. At this point, I pretty much know who the top 10 will be, so who gets kicked off, in what order isn't all that important or interesting until we get to the top 10. I knew the 2 that got kicked off last night wouldn't be in the top 10, so I was fine with it.

Change

For the most part, I'm not a fan of change. But it is an inevitable part of life and I've come to accept that. We've known these changes were coming for awhile now, but that doesn't make them any easier.

Change #1: Last Friday Diana and Jason moved out of Provo. They finished up classes and didn't have any reason to stick around, so they are living in SLC with my grandparents until the end of August when they will move to Texas for medical school. We have loved having them so close (7 doors down) and are sad to see them go! Obviously we'll still get to see them at holidays and other family occasions, but who knows if we'll ever even live in the same city again!

Change #2: On Sunday Rog was released as the EQP (Elder's Quorum President) and called as the Executive Secretary in our ward. After he was released as EQP, but before he was called as Executive Secretary in Sacrament meeting, the other EQP (our ward has 2 Elder's Quorums) asked me what I was going to do with Rog now that he would be home on Sunday mornings. I laughed and said that I wouldn't have to worry about that.

While the Executive Secretary has much less responsibility, he still has to go to all of the same meetings as before (except for the once a month 7:00 am EQP meeting with the stake). And now he also gets to go to Bishopric meeting Tuesday nights! I figure I might as well get used to it now because it's looking like this is what the rest of our lives will be like. I guess that's what I get for marrying an AP. I should have known better! But seriously, I'm grateful he's worthy and willing to serve.

We love our dads!

For some reason unknown to me, I forgot that today was father's day until it was too late to send cards to our dads. And Roger officially lost his status as favorite son this week. He forgot his dad's birthday was on Thursday. But we really do love our dads, really we do!

Our dads have worked to take care of our financial and physical needs. They also have raised us in the church and have always been there to give us father's blessings when needed.

Roger's dad thought him how to work around the house and even how to work on cars (for which I am very grateful).

My dad taught me to work hard and play hard. And he gave me the genes necessary to do the things I love to do such as dance, cheer, run, bike, swim, hike, etc...

It isn't possible to put into words everything these great men have done for us. We love them so much and are so grateful for all that that they have done and continue to do for us.

Dino Museum

After our Tri, we had planned to go to Seven Peaks with Amber and Dane. But because the weather was CRAPPY, we decided to go to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. I've shared my opinion on Dinosaurs before and it hasn't changed. They lived on another planet and then our Earth was made out of the matter from that planet. Seriously that's the only way I can reconcile them in my brain and lots of intelligent people share my view, so I'm not that weird! Roger has been wanting to go to the museum forever and it seemed like a good activity for a rainy Saturday afternoon. We really had a good time! In addition to the many dino bones, they have lots of hands-on exhibits that make it much more entertaining than a regular boring museum.

We designed a dino with two heads and Amber and I spent forever playing at the Erosion Table. They also have a Fossil Dig area, but we were ready to go by the time we got to that.



We decided we had to take a picture by this HUGE shark because of our cool tri shirts. If you look closely you will see why this is our favorite race shirt yet. They totally spelled Triathlon wrong. (There is no a between the h and the l.) Love it!

Despite the rain, it was a fun day. But seriously, what is up with this weather? It's June people!! I am enjoying the fact that our apartment isn't hotter than hades yet, but the rain keeps ruining my weekend plans! If it rains this coming Saturday, I will be beyond mad because we are supposed to go on our hot air balloon ride that got canceled back in April due to rain. It can rain all it wants while I'm at work, but please let the sun come out for the precious few hours I have on the weekend!

We did it!

As of 8:30 am this morning, we can say we are triathletes! It really was a great experience and I'm so glad we did it! I already want to do another one (provided I get some skinny tires for my bike). 3 months ago I didn't even know how to swim laps and now I love to swim! Really, I LOVE it! Biking I don't like as much. It didn't help that I used a mountain bike and the course was full of agonizing hills and the wind was ferocious! Rog is just the opposite of me. He hates to swim and loves to bike (even with a mountain bike). I beat him by a full minute on the swim, but he made up for it in the bike. We ended the bike at the same time and then ran together. Of course, Diana killed us, but we're going to blame it on the bikes. (She has a road bike.)

With our Race Markings



Right Before the Start

Swim 300 yards, Bike 11.6 miles, and Run 3 miles

After!



Thanks Jason for being our photographer! (He couldn't do it because he was in a minor scooter accident not too long ago.)

SYTYCD Top 18

This week I didn't have a clear favorite, but I did have a few that I liked A LOT. Of those my favorite was Randi and Evan's Jive dance. They made a joke of it, but it really was FUN. I also really liked the Disco and Contemporary dances.

This week I agreed with the bottom 3 couples and I also agreed with Ashley leaving, but I didn't agree with Max being the guy to leave. I think that it should have been Kupono instead, but they didn't ask me!

What the CRAP!!!

I really want to finish reading the sixth Harry Potter before the movie comes out in July. I started at the first book and have been trying to read a chapter a night... Yesterday I finished the fourth book which is also the longest. I pulled out the fifth book to start reading and I found this:

Yes, that's right, I'm missing the first 18 pages! I only have 1 page of the first chapter!!! I am SOOOOOOOOOOO mad!! I emailed the guy I bought it from, but I'm not expecting too much because I bought it back in March. BOOOOO!

Weekend Fun

On Friday, one of Roger's old roommates (Russell aka Lusty) married one of my old roommates (Hannah). We were lucky enough to get an invite to their sealing in the Mt. Timp Temple. It was fun to see some friends from our days in Monticello. Here I am with Ashleigh (Hannah's sister and one of my favorite people.)

Friday night we went on a date to Zupas (one of my favorite restaurants). Then we went on a search for a snow cone (as you can see we were successful) and watched Valkyrie.

Saturday morning Rog took the GMAT. He did 30 points better than his last practice test, but it wasn't quite the 600 we were hoping for. He is going to continue to study and take it again at the end of the summer. Here he is vegging out on one of his video games after the test.

While Rog was taking the GMAT, I went on a few errands and found myself a plant for my pot. It is a Baby Jade and I love it!

It was a fun weekend, but as always, it was too short!

Photo Collage Flower Pot

For June's enrichment craft night, we made a photo collage on a flower pot. Here are the directions.

You will need: a clay flower pot, Mod Podge, paint brush, paper cutter (optional), scissors, photos (copied or printed out on regular paper in black and white).

1. Brush a layer of Mod Podge on the area you are going to apply a photo. Lay the photo over the glue and rub out all the bubbles (very important or you will get wrinkles). Continue until you have covered your entire pot with photos.

2. Use scraps to fill in any gaps you may have.

3. Apply a layer of Mod Podge over the entire surface. This gives the pot a nice, finished look.

And that's it! Now you have a nice pot for some flowers or a plant!

SYTYCD Top 20

Here is my favorite dance from SYTYCD this week. It calls to the ballerina in me because Melissa is an absolutely beautiful ballerina. I hope so much that she can do other styles because she is sooooooo amazing! (I'm pretty sure she can because she made it through Vegas.) Unfortunately she will probably be undervalued by America because ballet isn't "popular."



I was ok with the people who left this week. I knew Tony would (he didn't even belong in the top 20 in my opinion). But I think Paris should have stayed. Who cares if you have too many contemporary dancers. Asuka's solo was CRAP!

"You are my Everest!"

A prize to the first person who can tell me who says that quote. Diana would get it right away, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog (at least on a regular basis).

After I finished my tiny frog quilt, I decided to make a quilt for our bed. The one we have is super warm (way too warm for the summer), so we end up using one that doesn't match when it gets to be hotter than hades in our apartment. I got fabric that matches the pillows on our bed and went to work on it. Well, obviously I didn't anticipate how much harder it would be to make a queen-size quilt. I'm half-way done machine quilting the top and then I have to do the binding. Pretty sure I'm crazy. My machine was not made to quilt such a beast. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will have conquered my Everest.

A little of this and a little of that...

I have a lot of random things to blog about, so here goes.

Rog has been studying nonstop for the GMAT and stressing to the max over it. He has taken some practice tests and every test he takes he improves, but he's not quite to the 600 we are hoping for. He takes the real thing this Saturday and then he will probably study for the rest of the summer and take it again at the end. That definitely isn't how he wants to spend his summer and it isn't fun for me either. Just pray that he gets a 600 this Saturday and then we can be done with it!

I had my last tap performance (probably ever) on Friday night. The group is taking a break for the summer and then I decided not to come back in the fall. There are many reasons for this...

1. I loved the big show we did at the Covey Center in January because it was a real organized performance and we were all ready for it and could perform and feel good about how we did. But ever since then we have just been doing little dinky performances at random places and we never are ready for them, so I don't feel good about my performance and that makes it not so fun.

2. Because we only practice once a week, it's hard to get to know the girls in the group. Everyone just talks to the people they knew from before. My good friend Ashleigh Adkins was in the group, but she isn't doing it anymore, so I don't have any friends. And my shyness prevents me from making new ones.

There are other reasons, but I won't continue to bore you with them. I loved dancing again, but I just felt it was time to be done. Hopefully I will get a little girl first and then I can put her in dance when she turns 3 and get my fix vicariously through her.

So You Think You Can Dance has started for the summer and Rog couldn't be more happy! (Actually he hates it because when it's on I go into trance mode and don't pay any attention to him. Sorry honey!) He was even more excited to hear that they are doing a fall season as well this year! It's the only show I watch and it's only 3 hours a week (less because we TiVo it), so you don't have to feel too bad for him. Here is one of my favorites from last season. It wasn't a very popular one, but I loved it because of how they used the shirt to do so many things.

I could go on all day about my favorites from last year, but I'll restrain myself for your benefit. On Thursday they revealed the top 20 dancers for this season, so now it's time for the good part of the show. (Watching the auditions is ok, but watching the dancers perform the dances choreographed by the professional choreographers is so much better!)

This weekend we enjoyed spending time with both sides of our family. We played mini golf and got a free donut from Krispy Kreme for National Donut Day with Diana and Jason (my sister and BIL). And Roger's family was here dropping McKae off for college. (She's going to the LDS Business College.) We waited 2 hours (no exaggeration) to eat at Texas Roadhouse (like Outback, but with bigger portions). We were told we would have to wait an hour and a half max, so when we finally were seated they brought us two huge appetizers along with the free bread that everyone gets. And then before we could blink, our salads were there. And before we could eat those, our meals were there. It was crazy! No one could even come close to finishing all that food, so we came home with tons of leftovers.

Yesterday morning Diana and I went to a Clinic for Tri Beginners. We learned about how everything works (starting, transitions, etc...) and then road the bike section and ran the running section. The bike section was much harder than I was hoping for (lots of hills and wind). But we both made it just fine. So other than the swim section, we did the whole tri! We'll add some more hills to our bike training in the next 2 weeks and then we should be ready for it!

Finally, if you want an update on how little Sam is doing, click here. He is doing well and he's so cute under all those wires!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings! Happy Sunday!

Some Redecorating

Some people have given me a hard time about my apartment having too many wedding pictures. (The product of decorating our apartment very shorly after being married.) So I decided to do some redecorating. And because most of the people who have given me a hard time live far away and won't see the changes I have made, I decided to post about them. I should have taken before and after pictures, but I didn't. So here are just the after pictures.

I found an amazing tutorial on "How to Hang a Picture Collage" (click here) which inspired me to do this. I think it needs a little something on the left to balance it out, but I ran out of black frames. So I may be adding something to it, but here it is for now. It is above our kitchen table. The tutorial made it so easy that I was able to do it all by myself while Rog was gone studying for the GMAT.



We just had random pictures in this frame (none of which were wedding pictures), but while I was redecorating, I got the idea to make it into a BYU Football collage. It has a picture from each year I've been at BYU starting with my freshman year. GO COUGS!!

Our dresser. The frame that says "Family" used to have wedding pictures in it and it didn't say "Family". We had a different frame with a picture of the Phillips Family, but we didn't have a picture of the Ririe Family. So I decided to turn this frame into a family frame with a picture of both families. (Ririe family, I think we need to take a new family picture while we are on our cruise to Alaska this summer.)

And finally our entertainment center... It used to have my bridals on top, but I replaced those with this cute frame from the Fords. And the frame I made for the May Enrichment Craft Night replaced a wedding frame.

I think I can safely say we are MUCH more diverse in the selection of pictures in our apartment now. Yes, most of the pictures are of the two of us, but we don't have kids yet, so you'll have to give us a break until we have some.

Crafting

You know I love accounting (really I do), but a lot of the time I sit at work and dream of crafting. Here are some of the crafts I have been up to lately.

Remember this? Well, I decided that I hated it! It looked like something that belongs in a little girl's room.... You know you were thinking it, but were too nice to say it.

The new and improved version. Much better!

The inspiration for this one came while we were reading the May Ensign of April's Conference. I LOVE this quote from President Monson!

And finally a summer decoration for our apartment.

Sorry Emily for all this crafting without you. I can't stop myself. I really wish you were here to craft with me! Don't worry... when you get back we can craft as much as you want!

Sam Richard Phillips

Yesterday Rex and Edda had their second little boy! Edda wasn't due until mid-July, so he was about 6 1/2 weeks early. He is having some trouble breathing, but considering his early arrival, that is to be expected. We are told Edda is recovering well from the C-Section. We wish we could be in CA with them to help out. Please keep them in your prayers!

Poor little guy! I hate to see little babies all connected to tubes and such. It just breaks my heart!

Oh the things we saw!

We really did see practically everything in Arches. All the arches, viewpoints, etc... The Three Penguins are one of my favorites. The whole time we called them the Three Egyptians, but later we found out the "official" name is the Three Penguins.

Before we did the Delicate Arch hike, Rog asked me if I thought we would understand why they call it the Delicate Arch when we saw it. I thought that was funny because isn't it obvious? Apparently he didn't know that the Delicate Arch is the one on the Utah License plates. I had been there before, so I assured him he would understand when he saw it and he definitely did. When we got there, I was afraid of going to stand under the Delicate Arch (it looks like there is a huge cliff behind it), but Rog, being the good husband he is, helped me overcome my fear.



I think the Devil's Garden Trail was my favorite. It was about 6 miles roundtrip to the Double O Arch with all of the other arches along the way. Wall Arch fell last August, so it was interesting to see where that arch used to be. We found and named Rog Arch. Obviously it isn't a real arch because it isn't 3 feet (we learned that is the definition on our Fiery Furnace Tour), but we had fun with it.



We visited the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands. The Grand Viewpoint was amazing, but we decided not to see more viewpoints because they would pretty much be the same thing. Rog says the Mesa Arch was his favorite arch, so it was worth making the extra drive for that (and just to be able to say we visited Canyonlands).



Our last day we went on the Fiery Furnace Tour. You can either pay for the tour or pay for a permit into the Fiery Furnace. Because there are no marked trails, we decided to take the tour option. We liked our ranger and it was cool to see what is in the Fiery Furnace. It's different from what you see anywhere else in Arches. If you go to Arches, definitely sign up for the tour in the visitor's center.

One of the guys on our tour carried a whole watermelon in as a joke, so we all got to benefit from that. The same guy also made a comment about how mormons have horns, but we'll overlook that... Pretty sure he didn't know we are mormons.

We loved seeing the amazing work of our Heavenly Father. I don't know how someone could believe there isn't a God after seeing that. So BEAUTIFUL!

Camping in Moab

For Memorial Day weekend we camped out in Moab. It was quite the adventure! It rained nearly every night. Fortunately it didn't rain a whole lot during the day. But the fact that it rained during the night helped it stay cool during the day. For that I was very grateful! Our little tent didn't come with a rain fly, so we bought a tarp and Rog amazingly made it keep the rain out.

Before our trip, we bought a butane stove on which we cooked just about everything we ate that weekend. This included hot dogs at the Delicate Arch Trailhead which made us famous on the trail. People would see us and say, "You're the hot dog people." And we would reply, "Yes, yes we are." It was pretty funny.

Best part of vacation - desert every night! Friday night, caramel apple crisp from Denny's. Saturday night, shakes from the Moab Diner. And Sunday night, we cooked s'mores out of the back of Meg because it was windy and we didn't want the wind to blow out the flame. MmmMmm! Good thing we burnt so many calories from hiking all day!

I fell in love with the cactus there. They really are pretty! Today I went to Home Depot in search of a cactus for our apartment, but I didn't find one to my liking. I will most likely continue the search next week. Wish me luck!

We spent our days seeing practically everything there was to see in Arches National Park. And we also visited Canyonlands National Park one morning. We went to church Sunday morning in our shorts, a t-shirt, and running shoes. This was definitely a first for me. At least we took off our hats. :)

It was a great trip! Although I do have to admit we were happy to get back to our nice, soft bed and wonderful shower. (Our tent was TINY and the showers at the campground were definitely not that great.) But we only paid $61.94 for 3 nights. I told Rog we would have stayed in a hotel, but camping is SOOOOOO much cheaper and that makes the accountant in me happy. I'm not so girly that I can't rough it for a few nights to save some $$$!

Haircut

Ever since we got married, Rog has pestered me to cut his hair for him. My answer was always the same... I don't know how to cut hair. I don't want to mess it up! But last week I finally gave in. We borrowed the needed supplies from my BIL Jason and I went to it. Obviously it wasn't perfect, but it wasn't awful either and I'll only get better with practice.

And we will call her...

MEG

As in... "Megara. My friends call me Meg. At least they would if I had any friends."

Hercules has been my favorite Disney movie ever since I first saw it in 1998. It came out in 1997, but Riries don't pay more than $1 to see a movie (other than in extreme cases), so I didn't see it until we rented it. I remember watching it on my 12th birthday and loving it because we had just finished the unit on Greek Mythology in 6th grade.

We decided that our CRV has a little spunk to her. I can just picture her saying any of these Meg quotes from the movie:

I'm a damsel, I'm in distress, I can handle this. Have a nice day.
I'm a big tough girl. I tie my own sandals and everything.

Well, you know how men are. They think "No" means "Yes" and "Get lost" means, "Take me. I'm yours."

Ok and while I'm at it, I have to include my favorite quote from Hercules.

Panic: "Hercules." Why does that name ring a bell?

Pain: I don't know. Um, maybe we owe him money?
Hades: So you took care of him, huh? "Dead as a doornail." Weren't those your exact words?

Pain: This might be a different Hercules.

Panic: Yeah. I mean, Hercules is a very popular name nowadays.

Pain: Remember, like, a few years ago, every other boy was named Jason, and the girls were all named Brittany?

Gotta love Pain and Panic! And that quote is even more wonderful now that my BIL is Jason and his little sister is Brittany.

Well, there you have it. Kind of a long post just to say we named our car Meg...