Christmas Vacation

Sorry for being so blog-inactive for the last week. In all honesty, I'm not THAT sorry though because I've been partying with the family, friends, and, of course, Dan. Our week has been filled FULL with travel this past week but, boy, has it been fun!

**Disclaimer: Brace yourselves, this is gonna be a long one.

Last friday night, Dan and I started our "vacation" right with date night. We had a gift certificate to Winger's and free tickets to a play at the university from my parents so we just had to! We invited Seth and Laura Allred to dinner with us. It was fun chatting with them and it was actually our first time being able to get all four of us together! Usually, Laura and I will do girl's nights or Dan and Seth will do guy's nights but someone usually ends up having to work whenever we think about doing a double date. It was nice to finally be able to get together! After dinner, we parted ways and Dan and I went to the Randall Jones Theater to watch A Christmas Carol on the Air. It was such a funny play! We loved it! (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

Saturday, Becca picked us up and we followed the rest of the fam (minus Steph) to Salt Lake for a family filled weekend. We stopped along the way to visit Lisa, Nick, and Alex (Hey, Lisa!) and then we all headed north. Dan and I were going to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert at the conference center that night and had a few hours to kill so we (us and Becca) decided to check out the new City Creek Center across from Temple Square before heading over there. Soooo we called up Melissa and told her to follow us there and the four of us (after parking issues and navigating our way through the busy shoppers) spent some time shopping in H&M. Dan and I both got sexy winter coats for WAY cheap and Melissa and Becca found a round shirt haha

Becca and Melissa continued to shop while Dan and I made our way over to the conference center to meet up with Dan's grandparents and his cousin, Spencer, for the concert. Dan's Uncle Bruce is in the MoTab Choir so it was fun hearing him sing AND listening to them sing live in the conference center was awesome! They sounded so good. I would definitely love to see it next year too! After the concert, we met up with my family + Meliss on Temple Square to take pics and look at the lights before heading to my Grandma Barclay's for the night. It was beautiful!

Sunday morning, it was snowing a bit but Becca was awesome enough to do a photo shoot for Dan and me. We needed new pictures of us desperately since our last "formal" shots were from our engagement photos. I'm so happy with the way they turned out!

After taking pictures, we went to church with my grandma and then helped her get ready for the rest of the Barclay's to come over for our family Christmas party. We had yummy prime rib, "funeral" potatoes, salads, soda, veggies, ...the works! It was great. "Lucky the Elf" (aka Dan) even came to help Santa deliver some presents haha It was so fun to see the family. Next year, hopefully everyone can make it!

Monday morning, we all packed up to go home. We stopped by the Asian Market on the way home and Dan and I bought our very own sushi roller and sea weed so we can make our own sushi! Yum! We didn't stop long though cause Becca had to be back to work (she started a new job as a CNA at the same place my mom works), Dan wanted to go mudding *eye roll from me*, and Mom, Dad, Erin, and Cole wanted time to check out the new Scheel's (like Cabella's) before they had to be back for Collette's choir concert (which Dan and I also sang in that night because we are alumni... boo ya!).

Tuesday, Dan and I slept in until noon and then borrowed Becca's car to drive to St. George to stay for a couple days (we decided to do a trip instead of Christmas presents this year). When we arrived, we went to the Sunset Megaplex to see The Hobbit (for free even though I no longer work there haha) and then we went to dinner with Shaun and Kara + Kara's friends, Chelsea and Wes at Sakura's. It was so yummy! After games, Dan and I went to Shaun and Kara's new place to play games. We laughed our butts off and drank WAY too much soda! haha I love hanging out with them.

Also, they told us some exciting news! They have started the adoption process to adopt a baby! They said that if all goes well, they could have a baby within 6 months so Kara was joking that she's "technically" 3 months pregnant! haha I'm way excited for them (Kara had cancer when she was 15 and because of the chemo, she can't get pregnant so it's exciting they are able to adopt).

Wednesday morning, we slept in again (yeeeeeeeesssss!) and then went to Kneader's Bakery for lunch before going to get massages at Message Envy. It was both of our first times getting massages and it felt SO good! BUT definitely take their advice when they say to drink tons of water afterwards because I didn't and the next day I was SO sore. My back felt so bruised (luckily, Dan rubbed my back with Icy-hot and that helped a bit). Anyway,  after massages we went shopping for sheets for our bed and to see if we could find presents for our families. We found sheets but nothing we wanted to get for presents so we went to dinner at Bucca Di Beppo for some Italian instead. It was fun because it's a "family style" restaurant so everything is served in either small (feeds 2) or large (feeds 5+). Basically, you pick a few items to share. It was yummy! We decided it'd be a fun place to come with our families.

After dinner, we vegged out at our hotel room watching Cheaper By The Dozen on TV while we waited for Shaun and Kara to come over and swim/hot tub. We finally decided to brave the cold and run to the swimming pool around 10pm and they got there shortly after. I haven't been swimming in SO long so it was fun to get in the water again + the hot tub felt amazing. We then ran back to our hotel room to change and we chatted and ate junk food with Shaun and Kara before they headed back home.

The next morning we woke up and packed so we could check out of our room and Dan's mom called to tell us that Dan's dad, Steve, had to go back into the doctor and asked if Dan could help deliver some packages from his courier business (the one Dan used to run). The week before, Steve had a suspicious mole cut out of his leg. I guess it'd been there for about three years but had just recently been growing in size and the doctors wanted to check it for skin cancer. Needless to say, after they ran some tests they found that it was a rapid growing cancer. Dan was more than willing to help out with deliveries, as were all the rest of the boys, so their dad could get the medical help he needs to kick this cancer in the butt. They are going to test more of his skin to see if it's spread anywhere else. Hopefully it hasn't and they got it all! He's being really optimistic about it but be sure to keep him in your prayers!

In other news, I met with my mentor teacher from Enoch Elementary today. I'm excited to work in his class but it's starting to hit me how near the end actually is! AHHHH!!!

Well, that was my very long, busy, and fun week in a nutshell. If you're still reading OR you read any of it, I commend you! haha This was mostly for me. It is, afterall, my blog. Love you friends!

Aren't you excited for Christmas!?!? 

3 days left!

All Growed Up

These last two weeks have been concert central for my families seeings how school for the young'ns is out this weekend for summer.
Last week was Erin's 6th grade orchestra concert and Cody's choir concert at CVHS.
This week was Collette's choir concert at CHS.
It's been fun to be able to watch and listen to the talents that all my awesome siblings have!

I, also, had the opportunity to babysit cute little Chloe (my good friends, Amber and Dan's, little girl) on the night of Cole's choir concert.
It was so fun; that girl is sure cute!
AND it gave me a small taste of motherhood... car-seats are NOT my friend and calming small fussy children during choir concerts is tough stuff... I need some practice haha

P.S. It's official. I'm an adult. I got a car loan all by myself in my name (with Dan's help haha)! So, Dan and I are now the proud owners of a newish truck! Woo Woo! Dan loves that thing... Isn't it awesome?

tres días

The last couple of days have been fabulous!

Monday was my sister, Erin's, 12th birthday.
She's growing up so fast!
And she was so excited! 12 in our family brings ear piercings and shaved legs (every girl's dream, right? haha)...
It was a fun evening though.
Right after I got off work, I took Erin for a bike ride.
It was awesome and felt so great to get a little exercise.
PLUS we had fun "pretending". Don't you remember those days of being young and pretending with whatever you were doing?
This day we pretended we were "robbers escaping the police" on our bikes. It was epic.
Then we went with the rest of the family to my sister, Cole's choir concert at CHS.
P.S. You guys! Cole has her driver's license and she drives a car! WEIRD!
The concert was good and they sang some fun songs.
After the concert we all met over at 5 Buck Pizza for a little birthday get-together.
And Dan was able to meet us there after work!
It was a blast!
The dinner escapade involved everything you could imagine--eating pizza, laughing, talking (loudly), me getting my hand smashed into the pizza by dad for eating the pineapples off the pizza on the pans, Becca and Paul bringing in the cake my parents wanted to surprise Erin with, Paul accidentally sitting on the cake while bringing it there in the car, singing happy birthday to Erin, picture taking, and eating the cake.
What a great night!

Tuesday, Dan and I slept in until noon and, oh, was it glorious!
Not to mention the fact that we slept on our couches (with them pushed together) so we could watch Better Off Ted, which is absolutely hilarious.
Then we had a totally productive and fun day together!
We registered the Jimmy (finally!)... We've only been illegally driving an un-registered vehicle for the last 4 months. No big deal.
And got the title turned over to our name (oh yeah! we own it!)
Then we cleaned out both our cars, vacuumed them, and even took them to the car wash!
At about 3pm we realized we hadn't eaten anything the whole day and we were hungry and since it was our "date day" we needed to go eat something.
SO, we went to the drive-thru at Carl's Jr. (mmm!) and then jumped on the freeway to go to Escalante.
We had to pick up blood from the blood drive for Dan's courier company like the last time we went there...
We had such a fun drive.
I love being with Dan, no matter what we're doing ♥

TODAY, when we're both off of work, we're going to do a little spring yard cleaning.
I'm SO excited!
No, but seriously. I am.
Which is funny because when I was at my parents' house I was never excited to do yard work BUT now that I have my own house, I'm stoked on it haha
I've become... "an adult"... oh gees.

Choir & Pumpkin Cheesecake

Last night, I had the opportunity (like I do every Thursday) to attend choir practice with Dan. It was a good time but I wish that Dan's grandma would've been there for me to sit by. She usually is, but she got in a minor car accident the other day and stayed home so I had to sit by this other lady in our area. I think her name is Meredith or Mary or something with an 'M'...anyway, I was telling Dan last night that she's sort of ornery but in a nice way. I know, I know, it didn't really make sense to him either. But I would explain it as she just acts like she's not in a very good mood all the time but she's still pretty nice. If that makes sense... haha Long story short, she's not my favorite choir-chair-area partner so I hope Dan's grandma can come back for next week!
On a brighter note, after we sang some really fun songs and had closing prayer, one of the men in the choir took a few moments to kind of bear his testimony of the gospel and to thank the choir members for being such good examples to him. I don't know him at all, but his comments really touched me and I was elated when he told the choir that he was planning to be baptized as a member of the church in October. He is probably about 75 years old or so, and was raised as a Catholic all his life so he said that the decision to be baptized was a hard one for him. But he said that as he studied the Book of Mormon and had the opportunity to discuss with missionaries and with friends he made from choir, he knew that the church was true and he needed to be baptized. It was so wonderful to see how happy he was and I was grateful that I was there to hear of his decision. Yes, choir was a really good time!
AND THEN, I went with Dan to pick up his new trailer. It's really nice. It looks good on his truck and I'm really excited for him to start up his courier business. He's been working hard to get it started and now that he has a trailer for it, he will be able to start soon. While he was hooking the trailer up to the truck I was playing with his phone and accidentally answered one of his phone calls (oops! haha). It was one of his old mission companions and he knew right who I was when I answered the phone! He's a really nice and funny guy so we had a good little chat until Dan could come to the phone.
After we picked up the trailer, Dan took me out to dinner at Olive Garden. The food was WAY good and I loved being there with Dan. We had pasta and talked and he even talked me into getting dessert; pumpkin cheesecake that we shared (It was to die for!). After dinner, Dan took me back to my car and then followed me home to Cedar. The night was just fantastic and I am beginning to love my Thursday nights with Dan! I'm so happy to have him in my life. He truly is amazing :)

hmm.

Note to self: If you are in a choir with grandma's and grandpa's, you get to wear a grandma dress.

Oh, the things I will do for my wonderful boyfriend haha