Big Fish

Thanksgiving was great!! Good eats, good peeps, and good sleeps! I enjoy sleeping in over breaks... what does Byron love to do in the mornings on breaks?

Go to Strawberry Lake and fish (leaving the house at 6:30, it looks beautiful but too early for me)

Here he is with his good buddy Jared. They were so proud of their fish, and I was proud of them!

Another morning with our neighbor Jake.

I need to do some blogging catch up:

Here we are at the BYU v. Air Force game. I don't remember games being that cold last year, I sat down shivering most of the time but it was fun to watch a game with Byron!

We attended a mission temple night at the Bountiful Temple where we enjoyed seeing mission friends and hearing a spiritual message from President Callister.

A few weeks ago we visited Idaho and I finally made pillow covers to match my curtains (I hope it's not too matchy matchy).

getting me through the weekend...

Getting through the weekend was tough for me (and today wasn't too much better). I have a cold and wanted to share a few things that got me through. I don't really know how we ever survived before they made tissues with lotion! This is a must have for me anytime tissues are needed! Hulu for some entertainment, and apple juice because my mom told me so. I really enjoyed reading The Hunger Games and found it very interesting.

But most of all, I spent hours reading all about Stephanie Nielson on the Nie Nie Diaries. I've seen so many buttons (notice that I have one now too?) and have seen her blog from time to time but I've never really started reading it. Wow! She is so inspiring.

---Not sure that crying while having a cold is a good thing but I'm hoping it was cleansing in some sort of way.---

I can say that I have a button not because it's popular but because I was truly touched by her words. In many things, not always associated with the crash, she made me want to just be a little better (0kay, a lot better), love my husband and everything about him that much more, be even more prepared for the joy of motherhood, be a better friend, inspire someone else, and get my spirituality more in order!

If you haven't had a chance to go through her archives and read about her experiences (and are needing a little boost) I encourage you too... you might be surprised at how it makes you feel. Sometimes when I look at blogs I feel sorry for myself and wish that I was more like that person (creative, funny, beautiful, talented, etc., you get the picture right) but Stephanie's didn't make me feel that way at all! Do you know what I mean? I just felt inspired and that is what I needed to get me through the weekend. Remember this for when you have a lot of down time and need something to get you through!

Halloween

We went to a Halloween party at Byron's grandparent's house and had fun talking with family, playing Bingo (Byron was just a little upset that I won), frosting cupcakes, seeing the fun costumes, and eating Pumpkin brains.

Kelsey as Lucy from I love Lucy, Lauren as a cave girl

Byron frosting a cupcake... bet you can't guess what he is. And there is Tanner as a geek to the right.

Landon as Snap, Cole as Crackle, and Gavin was Pop. (their mom, Logan, was the Trix bunny and their dad, Chris, was the Lucky Charms guy - it was so cute!)

Did you guess what Byron was? We were High School "has-been" parents. We are both wearing buttons- his says "high school was the best!" and mine says "#1 Cheer Mom." Here we are taking an awkward high school dance photo.

Cameron was Joe Dirt, it was so funny!

On Saturday we got a lot of chores and errands done since we haven't had a weekend at home in forever! That night we went to Sonic for dinner... they had 50 cent corn dogs on Halloween and watched The Haunted Mansion and The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was very low key but we really enjoyed ourselves! We were going to make Carmel covered apples, and even went to 3 different stores to find Carmel (everyone was out!) but we were too stuffed from dinner so we will make them on Sunday. We both love Halloween but were sad we didn't get any trick or treaters... maybe next year!

Thriller at Tuachon

Thanks to our awesome friends, the Hansens, we made a trip to St. George this past weekend. On Friday night we stopped at the Pizza Factory. Oh man, this place is good.

When we were on vaca in St. George over the summer, we stopped at this place and had pretty much the best meal of our lives. I don't know why but it just hit the spot. It didn't hurt that our waiter had messed up on an order and gave us a free Parmesan bread twist.... to die for.

We went straight to the factory after our drive, without even stopping at the condo we stayed at. How funny that our waiter was the same? Very. We told him about the summer and he said he would do his best to make sure we had an equally good time. After we finished our meal he gave us 2 free desert bread twists! He said they were a new item that they were just trying out and hadn't put on the menu yet. But they tasted a whole lot like the cinnamon bread twists that they already offer! Since we were already so full, we ate one and saved the other for breakfast the next morning. Are you thinking "pigs."? You should be because we are!

After dinner we saw The Time Travelers Wife. I cried a little. I think Byron almost did but he won't admit it. I liked the movie though.

We arrived that night at the condo. Not really a condo if you ask me, more like a house! It was a great place to stay but we wished Brock and Lindsey could have been there to hang out with.

Saturday we visited Byron's grandmother, went to Tai Pan, the outlets, In & Out, Cafe Rio, and watched part of the ugly BYU game. Sad game. At half time we left for Thriller at Tuachon and were greeted by the Living Dead:

This girl I took the pic with just stared at me when I asked to take the pic together... it was so creepy! People either laughed at them or tried to ignore them. The little girl sitting in front of us cried each time one got near! Poor girl, she is probably still having nightmares they were creepy. Now I want to dress up like them for Halloween!

The weather was great and we got to see our Mission President and his wife there. Thriller was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Such a great show.

We drove home the next morning to see Byron's brother Cameron be ordained an Elder. Byron's family threw a party afterwards for Cameron and for Byron's birthday. Always a good time at the Putnam house... you can guarantee some hearty laughter :)

Now I'm just hangin out at home alone for the next few days (well, I am actually very busy with work and church stuff but... still alone). Byron went up into the mountains with Devin - hunting. Did you see the snow today? Yeah, they hiked up in that and from what I understand the mountains are gonna get hit hard with snow again tonight and tomorrow. The good news? Byron will be home for Halloween. Not that we really even have any special plans.

Byron's B-day and Disneyland

Byron's 23rd birthday was on Friday and since we were going to be in Disneyland that day, I threw him a little celebration on Wednesday. It was all very spur of the moment (I decided to do something that morning) so it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped but it was fun to surprise him.

The present....

The card... so funny!

wait for it...

hahaha (Byron laughed just about as hard as I did).

The dinner: ribs and baked potato. (note: it was almost as expensive to make these as it is to eat out!)

Byron's fav cake - rainbow with rainbow chip frosting. This is the first cake I've actually made in our oven because it is so hard to cook in. I think after a year I've almost figured it out... this turned out pretty good!

Yes, it was just Byron and I celebrating because I'm lame and didn't plan early enough to invite anyone, but we had such a good time together!

We had a blast in Disneyland but thought we were going to die from exhaustion! We woke up at 4:30am on Friday in order to arrive at the airport on time.

We got to our dumpy hotel around 9 and headed over to Disneyland for the next three days. The first night we went home after the fireworks because we were so tired from being up so early, the next night we made it to 11 or so and the final night we stayed to midnight. It was a blast but when we got home, we didn't feel like we'd been on vaca. Not much relaxing went on... just play play play. So much in fact that I got a little sick and had to stay home from work today.

Here are some of the pics we took.

I made Byron go to city hall and get a pin saying 'Happy Birthday Byron.' Because it was his birthday that day, he got a gift card to use on Disney merchandise. We (mostly me) were so excited about it that the lady giving it to us just laughed at me (and she wasn't the last person to laugh at me for being so happy during the trip). Everyone wished him happy birthday all day long, it was pretty funny.

The Halloween decor was AWESOME!

The pineapple spear was sooo yummy, and yes I know I am a horrible photographer. Byron ate this as we waited to meet his favorite Disney princess (I'm not kidding).

Byron and his Disney princess crush... Jasmine. When we were there last year, we didn't meet any characters so it was pretty fun to listen to them stay in character the whole time.

Byron to Jasmine: "My little sister here is going to take the picture"

Me to Jasmine: "Or his wife"

Jasmine: "Oh, haha, I wish my husband could be here to"

Me thinking to myself: 'that's cool that she is married, I bet she gets hit on all the time and has to bring her husband up'

Jasmine: "He is in Agraba, probably at some Camel shows."

Me thinking to myself: 'dang, this girl is good!'

Then for the picture, she wouldn't even let Byron touch her, she told him to stand the way his is in the pic and then she posed hahaha, it was pretty great!

The Haunted Mansion was totally awesome! It was all decorated for Halloween after "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

Byron knocking on the haunted door.

Jack Skellington at the mansion.

We tried 3 different times to meet Sally and Jack before finally making it. They stayed in character too and were so funny.

Sally to me: "oh, you look so happy, what happened to you?"

Me: "I'm just so happy to finally meet you guys, we have tried three other time"
Jack: "Wow, you're persistent!"

Sally pointing to Byron: "So is this your one true love? Are you meant to be?"

Me: "yeah." I'm lame and can't think things to say to people, especially characters!

Jack: "are you sure? positive? 100%? you're sure? positive?"

Me: same answer, "yeah"

Jack: "But how do you know?"

Me - lame: "Because I just love him so much"

Sally to Jack: "How come you never say that to me?"

sorry to get you in trouble Jack! Their costumes were so fab!

In the Hollywood Tower of Terror - probably my favorite ride

With the Candy Corn near Candy Corn acres in California Adventure. They also had Candy Corn in the palm trees like coconuts, some in bunches like grapes, some like pumpkins and so much more!

And the last pic we took as we left the park.

The trip made us so excited to take our kids there someday and also made us want to buy a new camera! We had a few other memorable experiences, me walking into the men's bathroom, walking way too far for dinner, giving some guy who was pretty full of it money for the bus, eating at ESPN Zone and watching part of the BYU game. Now it's back to the real life of school and work. It's good to be home though!

ps - I want to work at Disney and be a princess, but they would probably make me pick up trash or run a ride.

fall & an upcoming trip!

I feel like I don't have much to blog about lately. And if I do have something to blog about, I forget to take pictures so I can blog about it - yeah, it's a dilemma. I just feel like I can't blog unless I have a picture to post because from what I gather from most people, pictures are the fun part about blogging. But here goes nothing...

Byron changed the oil in his car all by himself for the first time!!!! Too bad we don't have the little ramps to drive the car up on to. This is what I found when I came home from work that day... yuck, I don't think anyone could have paid me to get down there! I can't say I was too supportive of this little stunt, but Byron did a great job.

I had a birthday... my 25th to be exact (if you didn't know that I am older than Byron... now you know). Who doesn't take pictures on their birthday? Me!!! It was pretty fun though... Byron took me shopping, well really I went shopping and dragged him along. Then his family had a dinner for me and Byron's sister Michelle made an AMAZING cake... too bad I didn't have my camera! She did a great job though. The morning of my birthday Byron got me french toast from Kneaders... it was a first for me and I approved! Yum. I went to work for half the day and then Byron and I went to Texas Roadhouse and a movie - we had a great time and I love spending these special days with Byron. Kneaders breakfast is the only picture that was taken on my b-day (and I hadn't finished getting ready for the day).

We, along with many other people in Utah, had a mission reunion - here are many of the sisters from my mission. I served with just a few of them.

And I thought I would post some of my favorite pictures from our honeymoon in disneyland because....

we are going next weekend for Byron's birthday and fall break!!!! We can't wait to see all the festive decorations for fall and halloween. If you have ever been at this time of the year, please tell me what you thought and if there are any must see attractions.

Camping and Fall Decorating

We went camping this weekend and had a blast :)

Getting all tied down with Byron's pontoon...
Because of the way Byron's car racks hook on, we couldn't open the doors once we got everything tied down. So - we climbed in Nascar style.... through the windows haha.

Arriving at Strawberry and setting up camp. We found a great spot right by the lake!

Byron made it down to the lake for about 30 minutes to fish before it got dark.

Waiting for Byron's tinfoil dinner to cook.

Byron got up Saturday morning and heated up some water so we could have hot chocolate and donuts for breakfast before he headed out of the pontoon to fish for the morning. This is around 7:30 am and it was pretty chilly, but he stayed warm in those stylish waders :) Looking good honey!

On his way out...

This is about where he got to before he had to oar back because he forgot his sunglasses haha, he took the camera with him,

but had a hard time catching his fish and being the one to take a picture of it.

While Byron was fishing I stacked up the foam mattress pads and sleeping bags to make my own soft bed (since the ground was pretty hard that night) and fell back asleep reading a book. I woke up just when Byron was getting back and we sat by the lake enjoying the beautiful weather until it started getting windy.

On our way back home, we stopped by the fish and game offices to see the Salmon spawn. This male was a pretty nasty fish trying to bite the guy holding him.

There were so many and they would jump so high, I wondered if they ever jump lanes...

They were so pretty.

Last week while Byron was browsing Sportsman's, I headed over to Robert's. Just my luck! They were having a 40% off sale for Fall and Halloween Decor :) Byron convinced me to buy a few things (I think he was more into it than me!), he especially liked this cute Turkey.

I bought these birds at Lowe's quite a while ago and LOVE them. Usually they sit on our table in the kitchen but they matched the fall colors perfectly so they are joining the fall decor on the shelves in our living room for now.

To save a little money, we went next door to the dollar store for the fall leaf garlands and I found these so cute pumpkins for a buck each... sometimes the dollar store has such great finds!

When Byron saw the 'Autumn' and 'Harvest' letters, he had to have them so this is what we came up with....

These decorations paired with a 'mulled cider' candle have me ready to welcome fall :) Which is a good thing because I love me a bit of summer and hate to see it go.