St. George and Zion's and Vegas, Oh My!

As predicted, our trip plans changed.  :)  First, we drove down to St. George.  We had been told about a little local cafe by a friend who lives down there called Bear Paw Cafe.  They only serve breakfast and lunch and we go there just in time to eat lunch.  The food was good but looking back, we should have gotten breakfast there instead of lunch.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

We also found this little gem outside the cafe:

After lunch, we went over to the old St. George Tabernacle and wandered around.  

Next door to the Tabernacle was a little "water park".  Really it was just a park with some water features.  We played around in the water for a few minutes which felt so good because it was so hot outside.

We checked into our motel to relax for a bit before going to the St. George Temple for a session.  Covey had been to this temple before but none of the rest of us had.

We grabbed some dinner and ice cream and got ready for bed because we needed to wake up early in order to get to Zion's before it was too hot to hike comfortably.  When we woke up, we got some breakfast, packed up and drove to Zion's.  We got there around 10:30 or so and took a shuttle to The Grotto, which was the trailhead for Angel's Landing.  It was Covey's idea to hike Angel's Landing and we were all pretty excited because it looked like an awesome hike.  It is only 2.5 miles to the top, but it sure feels like a lot more because you are hiking uphill the entire time!  Thankfully, it was overcast for most of the day.  It took us about 2 hours to get to the top where we ate lunch and rested our tired bodies, then we went back down which only took us about half the time. :)  Overall, it was an awesome hike and we would totally do it again!

Riding the shuttle

The boys are gearing up for the hike

The guys really liked hiking out to far places and climbing on things.

Only .5 miles to go!

Oh yeah.  I'm tough.

This is called Walter's Wiggles.  It is 21 switchbacks and they are killer to hike--up or down!

Only a little further to the bottom...

We were so exhausted after hiking Angel's Landing that we decided to just drive down to Las Vegas where we were going to be staying with Covey's sister, Tiffany and her family.  We just relaxed and ate and chilled when we got there.  On Saturday, we wanted to go to the pool, but oddly enough, it was cold in Las Vegas--only about 65 degrees--so we didn't really get the sunshine we were hoping for.  We went to the Cheesecake Factory, which is a tradition of ours whenever we go to Las Vegas, and then we went to Madame Tussaud's (the wax museum).  Back at Mark and Tiffany's, we ate cheesecake and played games before going to bed.

Express at Caesar's Palace

Covey got the most delicious smoothie at the Cheesecake Factory

Me and Cameron Diaz

Covey and the Governator

Swooning over George Clooney

I could totally take Shaq

Move over Jessica...

Chillin' with Marilyn

The Ogden's always get fruity cheesecake and the spouses always get chocolate.

We went to church the next morning, ate lunch and then made the drive home.  We crammed as much as we could into our 4 day vacation.  But as much fun as we had, it was nice to come home and sleep in our own bed.  :)

I would like one, please...

Ever since I was little, we have had a dog.  I absolutely LOVE dogs.  I can't imagine not having one.  Whenever I go home and visit my mom, I play with our dog.  If I see a puppy in the pet store, I have to hold it.  I love dogs, especially big ones.  I'm really not a fan of the little dogs.  They are spazzes and they bark a lot and are too needy.  So maybe I should rephrase what I said before: I love BIG dogs. :)

Covey, on the other hand, never really grew up with pets of any kind except for the occasional cat that one of his sisters would adopt.  He doesn't really like the idea of having a pet and thinks of them more as a nuisance than a joy.  The good news is, Covey is coming around and actually kind of likes dogs now.  He even said we could have one when we get a house!  The bad news is, we probably won't be getting a house for a while.  But I just wanted to post some pictures of all of the cute puppies that I have found that I would like to have. :)

Australian Shepherd

Weimaraner

Black Lab

Yellow Lab

Alaskan Malamute

Waking Up Late

I really like sleeping in, but sometimes I sleep in too much because I like my snooze button.  Too bad it made me late for work.  :(  That and the fact that the left turn signal skipped my lane this morning as I was trying to get on the freeway...  Arg.

So Ready...

I am SO ready for a vacation!  I totally deserve one.  I haven't taken a vacation since August of last year and I haven't taken more than 3 days in a row off from work since then either.  Good thing is, I'm going on one next week!  Bad thing is, it's only a mini-vacation.  But we are going to cram as much into it as humanly possible without spending too much money!  We are going to go with Shannon and Grayson, my sister-in-law and her husband, who we also went on our last vacation with (they've had more vacations than us though since then).  I should probably wait to talk all about the vacation until it has actually happened, but I'm too excited!  :)

We'll start off by waking up at dark-o'clock on Thursday morning and driving down to Zion's National Park where we are going to hike Angel's Landing (hopefully, we make it to the top).  It is about a 4 1/2 hour hike roundtrip in the hot southern Utah sun.  We'll see how it goes.  Depending on how tired we are after that, we will either do some more little hikes or maybe just drive around and see some of the other sites.  After a full day of sun and hiking, we are going to go to a hotel in St. George and get some sleep.

The next morning, we're going to go to the St. George Temple and do a session.  Then, (hopefully) we are going to hang out at a water park for most of the rest of the day.  We're still working on locating one, but there has to be one in St. George, right?

Then we're going to drive to Las Vegas to Covey's sister's house and spend the night there.  Next morning, we're going to play at the pool with our nieces and nephews.  Then, we'll probably do some shopping and walking around and do a tour of the wax museum on the strip.

On Sunday, we'll go to church with Mark and Tiffany's family and go up to the Las Vegas Temple grounds and just kinda chill.  Then we'll drive home. 

I am really excited to get out of Provo and do some fun things with Covey and Shannon and Grayson.  We always have such a fun time together and we all really need a vacation.  When we get back from our trip, I'll write about what actually happens, because it's rare that trips go exactly how you plan them to be.  Whatever we do though is going to be awesome! :)

Our New Cabinet!

So a couple of months ago Covey and I decided to take on a project.  It all started when we found our new apartment and realized that we were going to need a little more storage space than what was currently there.  We looked around a few places to see if we could find something but didn't see anything that was a reasonable price.  Then we went to Savers where we found this base cabinet for $24.99:

It wasn't the color we wanted and it didn't have a top but my creative juices started flowing (greatly inspired by all of the HGTV I'd been watching) and we decided to tackle our first big furniture refurbishing project.  There was a lot of learning to do along the way because neither of us really knew what we were doing, we just had an end product in mind.  Thankfully, Covey's dad has all the tools we could ever need (and then some) to do this kind of a project.  So here is the progression from beginning to end of our newest addition to our furniture:

First, we had to cover the inside so that it didn't get spray painted.

Shaking up the spray paint

After the first coat of spray paint

To paint the cabinet doors, we hung them from a tree and sprayed them.

Spraying on the second coat of paint

Covey and his dad had to cut a big piece of board for the top of the cabinet so we could tile it.

Cutting the tile for the top

We got the top all tiled and grouted then we had to let it dry before we could tile the top edges.

The finished product!

We are so proud of ourselves!

Overall, the project took us about two months and about 20 hours.  We learned a lot and did many things the hard way, but I tell you what--if we ever do another cabinet like this, we are going to know exactly what we're doing.  We can tell you about grout and cutting tile and spray paint and all sorts of fun stuff.  :)  It was a really fun project and I wouldn't be surprised if we undertook another project in the future to try out our creativeness. :)

FREE STUFF!!!!

No, sorry, I am not the one giving away free stuff.  It is this new website I found called freebies2deals.com!

The girl who runs the site posts all these different deals, coupons, drawings, and free stuff you can sign up for all in one place.  I have become totally obsessed with checking this website multiple times a day to see what there is out there for me to get for free!  So far, I haven't actually received anything because I only found out about this website a couple weeks ago and most stuff takes 4-6 weeks to be delivered.  But when those 4-6 weeks come up, I am going to be getting all sorts of fun things in my mailbox.  I don't know about you, but I really love receiving things in the mail. No one ever sends stuff through the regular mail anymore besides credit card companies and no one wants that kind of mail (especially if it has a bill attached to it...).

The site also has information about 'couponing' which is basically using coupons to get great deals.  She actually tells you about the coupon and shows you how you could use it to either get the product for free or for very cheap.  It's pretty cool.

Anyways, I wanted to share the joy with those of you out there who read my blog and might like to know about free things and coupons and whatnot.  Enjoy!

The Best Two Years (So Far)

Yesterday, Covey and I celebrated our two year anniversary.  On my lunch break, I went to WalMart and found a mini-grill.  Covey has been begging to get a grill because he loves to BBQ, but we haven't had enough room.  I was really excited to give it to him because we hadn't talked about getting gifts for each other.  So I set it up in my trunk and when I got home I asked Covey to go out and get "something I left in the trunk".  He kept asking me what it was and I told him it was potatoes.  I heard him coming back down the stairs, holding his new little BBQ and had a big smile on his face.  It was so fun to see him so surprised.  :)  When I had walked in the door though, there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the table that Covey had picked out and put together himself.  He'd also made me a little card to go along with it.  I love him. :)

Covey putting his new grill together

Soon after all this, we got ready to go out to dinner.  We are trying to save money so we didn't want to do anything really expensive.  I found out about a great deal going on at TGI Friday's and Covey and I both really like that restaurant so we went there for dinner.  Every time we go there, we get the fried green beans for an appetizer.  I don't know what it is about those fried green beans but they are so good!  Covey always gets the Jack Daniel's Flat Iron and swears it is the best inexpensive steak he's ever had.  For dessert we had this absolutely divine Vanilla Bean Cheesecake.  Yuuuuummmmm!!!

Fried Green Beans

Covey and the Jack Daniel's Flat Iron

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Then we went bowling at Fat Cats.  When it comes to Covey and I bowling, you never know who is actually going to win.  Turns out that we each won one game.  I think the funniest thing that happened was when I bowled a frame left handed and it went into the gutter so I turned around and then Covey pointed down the lane and when I turned around I saw that I had gotten a strike!  The ball had bounced out of the gutter and hit all the pins.  Too bad I missed seeing it happen. :(

Game 1

Game 2

After bowling, we went and got the movie 'Love Happens' with Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart.  It was a cute movie.  All in all, it was a good night and it was a fun way to spend our second anniversary.  We're on our way to another great year!

We Did It!

We did it!  Today Covey and I graduated with our bachelors degrees!  I graduated with a degree in MFHD (Marriage, Family, Human Development) and a provisional certificate in Family Life Education.  Covey graduated from the Marriott School of Management with a Strategy emphasis.  We actually both walked with my college so that our families didn't have to go to two separate ceremonies and because mine is smaller than the business school.  I am actually the first in my immediate family to graduate with a college degree and the first grandchild on both side.  Covey is the last child in his family to graduate.  All of his siblings have graduated from BYU, which is pretty neat.  Anyways, we are really excited to be done with this part of our lives and excited to move forward.  Covey and I will both start working towards getting our Masters degrees in the next year or so, but we wanted to take a bit of a break so that by the time we get going again, we'll be ready. :)

Lining up for the processional

 My side of the family

Me and my sisters

So cute in our matching robes!

Stress

If only this meant that the only things that stressed me out were desserts...

It's the end of the semester and I'm just about ready to pull my hair out.  I just finished a paper that is due at midnight and I have a massive portfolio due on Thursday morning at 10am that is only about 3/4 of the way done.  Then it's finals.  This should make me happy, but right now, all it does is stress me out.  I'm going to go eat a dessert...

Selling These...

Hello friends!  We are trying to sell some of our furniture.  If you or anyone you know might be interested, please let me know!  If you like the item, but not the price, I may be able to negotiate to a reasonable price. :)

FORMAL FLORAL COUCH

This couch is in great condition! It shows very little wear. This would look nice in a formal or casual living room. We are moving at the end of this month (April) and have purchased a new couch and cannot take this one with us. The couch measures 88" wide x 40" deep. Price: $175

 

A close up of the pattern

 

 Comes with a total of 4 matching pillows

 

SINGLE PAPASAN CHAIR

This single papasan chair is in really great condition! The dark green cushion does not have any tears or stains and comes from a non-smoking home. The frame and base are in perfect condition as well with no cracks or breaks. We are moving at the end of April and would prefer not to take it with us. Available immediately.  Price: $100

 

A close up of the cushion

 

The base and frame

The Desires of My Heart

I try not to ask for much.  But enough is enough!  Give me sunshine!  Give me warmth!  Give me shorts and flip flops!  I keep looking outside hoping that it is sunny, but I am disappointed most of the time.  So I found some photos of things that make me happy. :)