Anniversary Number 2

For our anniversary we decided to keep it pretty low key and just go to park city for the day and shop. Nothing super glamorous, but still fun. I've been waiting months to go up there and was especially excited to hear about their fossil outlet. I told lance that while we were in Park City we could shop together and then the last half hour separate and buy each other a gift.... that, however, did not go as planned since Lance had apparently ALREADY bought me a "large" gift, and he wouldn't pick out anything that he liked besides a jacket from Nike that wasn't in his size.  Plan failed. We did, however, get Lance two new dress shirts from Van Hussen and I got 2 shirt and a sweater from Banana Republic.  The joys of receiving 8 20% off coupons valid at most of the stores in Tanger!!!

I made Lance a coupon book as a sentimental piece to our Anniversary.  Coupons include breakfast in bed, free lunch date, back massage, 1 free hour of playing xbox... ect.

Just half of our Tanger Outlet Coupons.  We still have 5 left if anyone wants them ;)  I would definitely promote signing up for the tanger club membership (if you are a big shopper at the stores in the tanger outlets.  Its only 10 bucks and you get quarterly 20% off coupons and every time you shop you get a coupon book!!

 

8:00 am - Coupons for Einsteins Bagel.  Lance had to go working with Austin in the morning and I thought they could treat themselves to breakfast!

12:00pm - had to Tanger Coupons in it

2:00pm - had the confirmation to our hotel

6:00 pm - had our IMAX tickets

10:00pm - had the coupon book!

For whatever reason the day before I was at work and decided to surprise lance with a hotel. Looking at all of IHC discounts I found a room at The Plaza for $59.25 when it's normally $129 per night. What a steal! So we went to park city and shopped for 3 hours then I surprised lance with the hotel. We checked in early and took a nap wore heading to Rodizio Grill for dinner. After stuffing our faces with meat we journeyed up to Centerville to watch batman in IMAX (another surprise for lance) and then went back to our hotel to pass out while batman forever was on the TV.
All in all it was a lovely and eventful anniversary date.  

 Lunch in Park City- We keep it classy!

 View from the Plaza. 11th Floor.

At Rodizio Grille.  Lance thought he was being artsy be keeping his Brazilian Lemonade in the picture.

 At the movies in Centerville

We woke up Sunday morning and had brunch before we checked out and returned home.  I was super excited at the thought of opening my "large present" (as lance kept calling it) and I sat upstairs for almost an hour wondering when he was going to bring it into the house.  The ironic thing is he had my new present set up downstairs the entire time.. and all I needed to do was walk down there to see it!!!

Since the 2nd year anniversary is cotton we got clothes for each other as well as a new ottoman storage container that lance swears there is cotton inside (batting) haha. I think it was more of a gift for himself to hide our ugly stack of board games and surprise! THEY ALL FIT!!

It is crazy how much fun we still have when we hang out with just each other.  Over the past year we have always had someone else living in our home (which we don't mind.  they've helped with our monster puppy), but it is crazy how much in love we still are with each other.  With how busy this past semester has been for me and how crazy the summer working has been for Lance it is nice to have a day dedicated to each other. Spending time just walking around, driving in the car talking and singing, and still having the ability to make each other laugh.  Marriage is a great thing I can't imagine my life NOT being married to Lance.  He's the greatest guy I have ever met.  He has filled the past 24 months of our marriage with more than 24 bouquets of flowers.  He has dedicated his life to working hard and allowing me to pursue my dreams of being a nurse.  He is always motivating me to be the best person I can be, to study hard, to keep exercising and staying healthy, to going to church, to forgiving others, and to being happy and embracing each day as they come and not waiting for the future to happen.  I just love him.

Run.Goal.Swim.Sleep.

So two weekend ago lance and I signed up to run in the Farmington Festival Days 10k. I partly signed us up to motivate me to get in shape and run and partly because I have never run a 10k (except Ragnar Relay). The two weeks before the run I tried training by running every other day, but the farthest I could run was only 3.2 miles! I wasn't sure if I would be able to run the entire 6.2 without stopping or even at all. Lance said "dont worry, anyone can run 6 miles...." I slightly wanted to punch him because that is such a big fat lie. Not ANYONE can just go out and run 6 miles. He is CRAZY. We got to Farmington and half way to the start line I realized I left my racing bib in the car. So I ran back with just enough time to grab the bib and use the port-a-potty before the race started. For the first mile I kept wondering why SOOO many people were passing me. Was I running that slow? 9:45 pace. I felt okay about it so I kept cruising at my same pace and eventually learned that all the people soaring past me were all running the 5k and not the 10k.
At about mile 3.5 (which was mile 2 for the 5k people) this lady came along side me and said in a chipper voice "isn't this a lovely run".... Wtf. Why are you talking to me during a race? Sure it's a lovely run for you. You are almost finished, I however still have another 3 miles to go!
The last 2 miles took us on the back ride of Lagoon where a deer came charging at the fence close to the path as I ran past. My shuffle on my iPhone came in handy and some upbeat songs really motivated me to keep going. The last half mile was up a hill that felt monstrous for the end of a 6 mile run. I was able to finish by speeding past two people just shy of the finish line. I finished 7.2 miles in one hour and seven minutes. It was definitely motivation to try and beat a friends time of 1 hour 4 min that had me pumping my arms and legs up that last hill. Sadly I didnt beat her time, but maybe I would have if that hill wouldn't have been there. Maybe next 10k.

We finished up with a breakfast and headed home for a shower and nap. We woke up after 30 minutes and headed across town to lances cousins soccer game. The 9 year olds battled it out and with 10 minutes left in the game we scored two goals and won with a score of 2-1. I've never seen lance so excited over soccer. He picked me up and spun me around like a rag doll.

After the game we headed home so lance could mow the lawn (which he obsessively does twice per week) then headed to Seven Peaks Salt Lake where we enjoyed 5 fun hours swimming. It was overcast and rainy when we got there but all of a sudden when they kicked all the non-jet blue people out it became sunny and a beautiful day. It wasn't very warm but luckily the water was nice.

So exhausted from such an active day we went home, showered and crawled into bed at 8:30. We are getting old!

Round Three: Bust

A few weeks ago Lance and I went in to embark on our 3rd IUI.  I was supposed to find out this past week, and the result is negatory! It's weird to me how I lack really any emotion other than "well this is lame."  I don't know if it is because I've already experienced almost every emotion when it comes to this process and I just didn't believe it was going to happen and thus it wasn't much of a surprise, or if I am just disappointed.  Unsure.  Well, since we are at our half way point we have a couple big decisions to make.  Over the past couple of weeks I have spoken with many of my friend who have gone through similar situations and their last stop was a fertility clinic.  Each one of them said "it was the hardest decision I've had to make, but totally worth it."  Each one of them went to different fertility clinics and said they were awesome which makes choosing just ONE a little more challenging.  The closest and the one I would probably want to go to doesn't accept our insurance, so that was an easy choice.  The second closest one has really sketch reviews, so I already said we won't go here, and the third closest one is in ..... PLEASANT GROVE. AH! that is kinda far away!

Lance has been on the "lets see a specialist" train since the 2nd one didn't work, but I've been holding back because I just have never viewed us as the type to be defined as needing a "fertility center," but alas I caved and gave them a call.  Good thing I did, because the next soonest appointment is August 27th... which means I will continue at my doctors office completing IUI #4 and #5 before we even get an initial consultation at the clinic.  I couldn't even imagine having gone through all 6 IUI treatments... then making the phone call, and then having to wait another 2 months! Needless to say, it is a great backup plan to have an appointment scheduled and hey, if in the next two months we get a +, then YAY and I can just cancel the appointment!

The art of giving

I am absolutely amazed at the heart and willingness to give from some people.  A girl at work had her house burn down to the ground in the the Rose Canyon Herriman fire a couple of weeks ago.  She lost everything.  She was in the house with her 2 year old daughter making dinner.  She had removed her wedding ring to cook when all of a sudden the police was there telling them they had to leave... NOW. The only time she had was to grab her daughter and literally RUN.  From losing everything, our work had put together an envelop to donate any money or giftcards we could all spare to help her family out.  We had our Chief of Surgery, Dr. Murdock come a go a little above and beyond.  This is what he gave.

a care package full of food, games, toys, feminine products, hygiene... really and thing and everything you might need to make it through this hard time temporally.  He spent the afternoon of his 4th of July helping out a family in need.  How amazing.

Saturdays in July

I have been lucky enough to get every Saturday the entire month of July OFF from work. It did require some swapping and negotiating but it has been worth it.  I almost forgot what it was like to have an entire day to just hang out with Lance without any distractions or work that either of us had to do!

The First Saturday:

Lance had a basketball tournament at the South Towne Expo (I don't classify coaching as work).  The Big Mountain Jam was played on sport courts which was rather interesting to see an entire warehouse full of these courts.  I woke up that morning and went for a run while Lance washed my car and mowed the lawn.  We went down to the expo center and watched/coached the JV team which ended in a close loss.  We quickly got our things together and headed to the dollar movies where we were finally able to see the Lucky One.  We've been dying to see it since we both read the book on our honeymoon in Mexico.  It was definitely worth the 2.50 we spent, and afterwards we ventured off to Sweet Tomatoes where we met Rona for a lovely Lunner.  After we ate we had the CHAMPIONSHIP game against Murray to coach the varsity team to victory, and they WON!

my boy Chandler.

3 female referees. first time ever

Champs taking a picture with their trophy

Mckay for 3!

Weston broke his nose and had to have surgery!

The Second Saturday
This day was slightly filled with work on Lance's part.  I, however, spent the morning running, then ventured off to Farmington with Jessie and Liam to go swimming at the pool.  Liam is an absolutely crazy kid in the pool.  He would venture off until he was entirely submerged in the water because he could no longer touch his little feet.  It was fun to see him blow all sorts of bubbles, but even more fun to spend the day hanging out with Jessie and relaxing pool side.  Afterwards Lance and I went to Will Green's baptism which was at a stake center, with 8 other baptisms.  We had both never seen a chapel so full on a Saturday.  We then went to the Farnsworth's house to have dinner with Weston's parents (Weston pictured above).  We took a ride in the Maserati down town to Texas de Brazil where we enjoyed a lovely meal. Completely stuffed and overwhelmed by how much meat we had just consumed we took our first stroll around the new City Creek which is absolutely amazing. Stuffed, happy, and exhausted we headed home!

4th of July

I spent the majority of July 4th working at Riverton Hospital.  It was a fun day full of 10 discharges leaving the unit with only 2 patients on the floor and 2 in the ICU.  We were quiet and were able to just hang out, eat triffle kabobs and enjoy one another's company.  It was a lot of fun and I was exhausted, but the second I came home I changed into "normal" clothes and we left for Centerville.  We enjoyed a lovely BBQ at the Larson's house before heading up to Farmington, Davis High School, to enjoy the fireworks display.  It was absolutely insane how many people were there! Traffic was a mad house and just as Lance was suggesting to the homeowners to sell their driveway we came across a guy doing just that.  We took the steal of a deal and paid him 5 dollars for the hour long use of his driveway.  We found what we thought was a lovely spot on a hill to overlook the fireworks, but the hill turned out to be much steeper than we had anticipated.  Numerous times we had to readjust as our blankets and bodies slid down the hill.  Overall it was a lovely evening which ended with me sleeping on the Larson's couch to only wake up at 4:20am to drive to Ogden.  It was definitely a comfy couch and I LOVED the AC. Thanks Larsons!

The Masons were there too!

prior to the show.

10 Months!

It is official!  From the looks of my blog countdown ticker I only have 10 months left of nursing school.  What is craziest to think is that it all began last August.  I was scare, yet so excited to be a nurse and to start nursing school.  I made my first friend who turned out to be my only friend and we hang out to study and eat Chipotle all the time! We were so excited to get out new grey scrubs and were giddy at any opportunity to wear them. Now we would rather be in normal clothes ANY DAY.  It is crazy to think that I only have one real semester of classes left followed by an easy last term filled with nursing leadership and my L & D capstone! I still don't feel like I have all of the knowledge that makes a good nurse, but I am so excited to close the books for FOREVER in just about 10 months!

@ BYU where I LOVED any opportunity I could get with scrubs.... and trying to be Addison Montgumery Shepherd for Halloween!