Clark's birthday description--just a tad late

Clark celebrated his 27th birthday on November 4th! Yay Clark! Unfortunately, we both had to work so we couldn't celebrate until the weekend. His lovely wife (oh, that's me!) surprised him with some scrumptious cupcakes and Dansko work clogs... but that was the extent of fun on the 4th.

For Clark's birthday we went shooting. Not to a range, just out on the Salt Lake desert with a few friends. I tried to keep the shooting celebration a secret from Clark but then he insisted that I must have gotten him a ticket to go skydiving and I just couldn't lead him on like that. So when he found out what we were doing to celebrate the day of his birth we went out and bought a bunch of clay pigeons, a pigeon thrower and shot gun shells. And a gun cleaner. We almost invested in a gun case too but I was reluctant to invest so much in a gun we had never even shot before.

We had a good time (finally!!) shooting our shotgun. I will now feel safe at home when I am alone.

Ready to rock.

Clark looks... like he is ready to kill something.

In action!

Lots of ammo.

Killing some clay pigeons.

Even I killed several clay pigeons. A real self esteem booster.

Clark shooting a 30-06.

Even though we couldn't go shooting on Clark's birthday I think we all still had a great time and we can't wait to go try out some handguns at the shooting range soon. I gotta say, shooting is pretty thrilling and exhilarating. I guess we'll be needing that gun case after all.

*when I have more energy and time I will blog about our recent trip to Hawaii. Supa fun trip but an awful day of travel on the way back to SLC. Five airports and four flights in less than 24 hours. Exhausting.

Laughter...the best medicine!

We have been cracking up over these videos for the last few nights. I hope you all enjoy these as much as we have :)

"What does this mean?"

Life just keeps on flying by

Seriously, I don't think I can keep up. The only reason I even have time to blog is because I NEED a break from studying, writing essays, and crying over our flooded basement. Yes, our basement flooded AGAIN! It was a magical surprise to come home to early one morning after 12 hours of plane/car travel. I'm not going to lie, I cried pretty dang hard. It feels like we've moved three times in the last 10 months because every time it floods we have to move all of our belongings upstairs. And that is no simple task. GUH.

But here are some photos of what we've been up to the last several weeks. In no particular order...

We traveled to the Sequoia National Forest last weekend for one of my best friend's weddings. And we saw a massive tree. 6th largest in the world, mind you.

Yep, that's me in the corner saying, "damn, this is a BIG tree!"

The girth is sure impressive...

Jessie and her now husband Max got married atop Dome Rock. It was so beautiful. Clark and I felt very honored to witness their marriage. Aside from their immediate families and some close relatives, only Clark, myself, Amy (the priestess, who got her certificate just so she could marry Jess and Max), and Jenna were invited. And I thought I had a small wedding...

Such a beautiful couple.

Trying to recreate a pose from a picture four years ago.

Clark, the official amateur photographer of the wedding.

And here we have a waterfall. Totally unrelated to the wedding. A couple of weeks ago we hike Adam's Canyon in the Wasatch mountain range.

Where Clark polluted some pristine mountain water.

Where Clark also delighted in the variegated foliage.

Them are some purty leaves.

And...unrelated to the waterfall hike, we also decided to visit the Kennecott Copper Mines one afternoon. Since it is one of the few man made excavations seen by astronauts in space, we decided to go take a look for ourselves. And yes, it is a BIG pit.

And the trucks they use to haul the rock have giant wheels.

So that is what we've been up to the last several weeks. It's starting to feel like fall here and the temp in the house is 65 degrees, but I'm refusing to turn on the heat. Ahhh, I love this time of year. I just wish life could slow down so I could enjoy it more.

Cuteness overflow

I am generally a cheap person; I have no problem with purchasing dresses or skirts from goodwill or DI. In fact, a little over a year ago I dyed a dress I had brought from Goodwill to make it more presentable. It is a rockin' dress.

However, the below dresses from this website are KILLING ME! They are all so adorable and unique. They aren't necessarily that expensive, but it is so hard to choose just one.

I broke down and finally bought this dress after eying it since May. The only problem is it is a bit too long and the way it flows makes me look prego. Since I am not pregnant and I don't want to be harassed constantly, I'll have to have Mom Tobler work her magic on the dress in the future. But I love it. It is vintage-inspired and so much fun.

Here are a few more I have my eyes on...

The fabulous thing about this website is that you can customize orders. You can add sleeves or make the dress longer/shorter for a minimal fee. Pretty awesome.

To give myself a bit of control, I told myself that I cannot purchase another dress (or two, or three) until I get accepted into a graduate school. Since I will be overjoyed to be accepted into any of the schools I am applying to, I just need the satisfaction of knowing my hard work has paid off, and then I can get myself a treat!

Impressive

Clark went to the dentist today for the first time in seven years.

He has not one cavity in his mouth. Good job, Clark!

The dentist did mention that his plaque was pretty "tenacious." The dentist used that high pitched, electric scraper-thingy (Jeff, what's the device?) for almost 45 minutes straight. Yes, I guess seven years of build up will lead to "tenacious" plaque.

BJ & the Summer Decompression II Festival

It's always a good thing to support local music. Especially if your spouse is a musician in a local band.

Me likey.

BJ rockin' out: Kris, Tyler, Clark, Randy and SP.

Tyler's theatrical antics. Guess you had to be there.

Clark with his official pass for the festival.

Here are a couple of videos. I apologize for the shakiness. My arms get super tired from holding the camera still.

(Disclaimer: So's YOUR FACE is PG-13/R rated for those of you who don't want to subject yourself to puerile language. But I'm sure you've heard worse walking around a college campus--unless you went to BYU. Young Man's Game does not contain foul language to my knowledge...)

Headlining the festival was Royal Bliss. They're kind of a big deal...if you're from Utah. But seriously they are on a major label and have songs you would probably recognize.

ADDICTED

Nothing tastes as good as Fig Newtons lately. I've gone through four packages in the last week... yikes, that's a little scary to admit. I really need to break free of this addiction. Why can't my addiction be to edamame or green beans or broccoli?

Weekend #2 of September

We went to the Avenues Street Fair. It was more of a big deal than I thought. Huh. Bought some flowers for my hair that make me feel oh so rockabilly. And I like it.

Throngs of people.

Adding more flowers to my hair clip collection.

Clark's band played at Club Vegas. And rocked it. BJ is so much fun to watch. They play again this weekend at the Summer Decompression 2 festival. I can hardly wait. An all day outdoor music festival? Life doesn't get much better than that. Unless the other bands suck. Then we may have to leave early.

I just adore Clark's drumming facial expressions. Priceless.

Got my hair did. I think it turned out quite nice. Now I am ready for fall. And thank you, Mom, for the pajamas. I will actually wear them. Oh look, we have proof in this picture that I have already worn them.

Gretchen's new nook. Isn't she precious?

Just like old people...

I just bought 2.78 pounds of prunes at Winco.

I think this means we're aging. Or we're just really concerned about regular, smooth bowel movements.

Or both.

(Our blood type craves these shriveled suckers. So I guess we could always use that excuse.)

Random notes you really shouldn't bother reading

• Clark and I feel like such lame Americans for not barbecuing on the socially appointed bbq days of the year: Memorial Day and Labor Day. Dang it. We didn't entirely miss our bbq window of opportunity (we used our mini Weber twice this summer) but now the coolness of fall is settling in and Clark may not want to tend to the grill for an hour outside when it is 30 degrees. I can't blame him.
• I am totally looking forward to getting my hair did this Saturday. Man, blonde hair on a natural brunette requires a lot of maintenance! I told Clark I may have to become a brunette in early 2011. I thought I could hold out and stay blonde until my hair grew way long, but it is too much work and too expensive. In the mean time I am going to slowly incorporate dark brown back into my hair palate. Take these photos of Kat von D for example:

So imagine this coloring a bit differently. Where her black hair is, my blonde is. Where her blonde streaks are, I want to have brown streaks. Not sure which photo I want to work with yet but I hope it turns out.

• Just watched The Blindside last night. What an amazing story. And the fact that Michael Oher played for Ole Miss is totally awesome, too. I guess I'm still a Rebel at heart. Looks like I missed watching him play at the Vaught-Hemingway stadium by about a year. Nonetheless, transferring to ASU was still the right decision. But SEC football...nothing beats SEC football.
• Clark's band BJ has two shows coming up. This Saturday at Club Vegas and next Saturday at the Ogden Ampitheater. Can't wait!
• Contacted a couple of my previous instructors from ASU asking if they could provide reference letters on my behalf for grad school. Whew. I think that might have been the hardest part of the whole application; the thing I was dreading most.
• Junking out feels good. Just went through my closet and drawers and made progress. Or did I just make room for new items?
• I've got to admit, I am readily looking forward to fall. I am excited to be in a place where leaves actually change colors!

I think that's all for now. Maybe I'm just bored because Clark is taking a 10:30 pm nap and I can't watch our next netflix flick without him. Have a good week, ya'll.

Loooong drive and a trip to Pasco

Despite a heated dispute between myself and a member of my immediate family(clue: not Clark, my Dad, or Sister), trembling, shaking, crying and breaking a necklace against a wall...I would say my trip home was pretty dang good. It's hard to see my nieces and nephews grow up through pictures; each time I see them they look so different! Little kids are so much fun and I'm thankful that at the end of the day I don't have to bathe, change, feed and tuck one in! Raising kids truly is a full time job. It is something that I aspire to do but am not equipped to do just yet...

So here is the proof that I made the 9.5 drive there and back. Katie called me "picture happy." But I was just doing my job. I told her she had a personal amateur photographer for four days. It was hard to sort out the nearly 500 pictures I took but here are a few:

I arrived in Pasco the night before my beautiful friend Courtney had to fly back to her hubby and new teaching job in Spain.

That is one extra large swing set. Katie and the kids playin'.

Katie and Teya swinging.

Graceful Chase.

Cole woke up from a nap and got a treat. What a cutie.

Admiring the fish.

Tough as nails.

Second day on the bike, what a natural.

Beautiful sky the night my Dad went up flying solo.

Mom finding goods at a yard sale. Me? Well, Mom kindly bought me a huge container of Dove hair conditioner for a buck. Good score, me thinks.

The county fair is smaller than I last remember...

Taking a break from the "bunny barn" and walking.

Admiring.

The "bunny barn!"

What Cole ate the day of the fair: a couple of baby carrots, part of an elephant ear, fig newtons, cotton candy (as evidenced by the big glob hanging from his mouth) and a DQ ice cream cone. I had to make fun of Katie for his "healthy" diet.

Sweet Taya.

A fist will work just as good as a pacifier.

Mommy and baby girl.

So sweet.

Teya and Grandma.

Nice camera showdown. Dad wins?

Chase's first day of kindergarten!

Cole has the cutest running form.

Rolls and cute socks.

Ty reading to the boys. Is that a book or a motorcycle magazine?

Dad repairing the ultralight after we "crash landed" in a random alfalfa field. No worries, no one died and Dad was completely composed under pressure.

Sisters :)

So glad I had the opportunity to come visit! It was a long drive there and an even longer drive back, but it was worth it!