Happy Birthday Clay!

WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU EVERYDAY!

Just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday!

Random Catch Ups!

     I was looking through the pics on my phone today and realized I am behind and have let a few small fun moments get away from me. The biggest new news with us is that recently Jason got a new job! Words can't even describe how proud I am of him. During the summer he did an internship with a company called American Healthcare Lending. Jason worked SO hard in the summer! He was working 34+ hours a week, going to school full time, AND doing an internship. Each day he just bounced around from thing to thing getting everything done. He has so much determination and drive and works so hard each day to better our future. And at the end of July after only interning for one month the company offered him a full time job as controller in the accounting department! I'm so proud of him for working so hard. I wish I could have the drive that he does. He is such a good example to me and I am truly blessed to be married to such a guy! I don't have any pics of this new news but it's a big deal to us and so I wanted to document it ;) 

   A few weeks a go a couple of us got together to celebrate my friend Michelle's birthday. Even Vanessa! Since she lives in Florida we are enjoying the use of skype ;) It was so fun to sit and talk to her as if she was there with us. We could just sit and chat as if we were all hanging out!

  Next, it may sound lame but it really is the cutest thing to see Max when Jason gets home. This is a terrible picture but it's what I had. As soon as Max hears the key in the door he runs to his toy basket to choose a toy to play with with Jason. And when that door opens he goes running to Jason to say hi and play with. Sometimes, like this picture, Jason needs a minute before he plays with Max so Max jumps up to lay with him and give him a hug until he's ready to play!

Yay for first piggies! And reading fun books ;)

On Friday night Jason and I had a fun little date night. Jason had a lot of important work and school meetings and events coming up and we both decided that his dress clothes wardrobe could use a facelift. And when Jason said we could go shopping for him I jumped to the opportunity! We had plans to watch Audrey on Friday night but she's such a good little girl we thought we should just bring her to the mall with us to shop. She slept through most of it but woke up in time for dinner. Her face lit up the second we entered the food court! ;) It was a fun little date night just the three of us!

Oh Max. We love him, it's obvious. We don't have kids so he is our little guy. He had more personality than we know what to do with. We honestly do not feel like he is a dog. Just watching him is so entertaining for us. We got him this bed a little while ago so he could have his own place and not get onto our furniture. He loves his bed almost as much as he loves his toys! He has so many favorites that sometimes it's hard for him to decide which ones he wants to have sleep with him. We watch him go to his toy basket and select each one to bring over to his bed, then he climbs on in with them to sleep. At this moment, it's hard to see, but 7 lucky toys got to sleep with him!

 Jason's bosses at his new job invited him to be on their flag football team. This is right up Jason's alley so he jumped to the opportunity! It was fun to go and meet the people he works with and their families. Max loved sitting and watching Jason play. He just loves Jason, it's sweet. ;)

Well that's what we have been up to! Busy as ever but feeling blessed to have wonderful opportunities ;)

New York City

     For most of my life my dad and brother have gone on guys hunting trips. Whether these were just camping for a weekend or a whole week in Canada, they were guys only! Not that we really wanted to go with them haha. So we always thought the sound of a girls only trip would be great. We finally were able to go just a week ago. My mom, sister-in-law, Dayna, and I could not wait to leave for our fun weekend. We had so many things planned that we wanted to do. I took way too many pictures so I am just going to have to choose my favorites or this blog post would go on forever. I had so much fun with just my mom and Dayna. We definitely shopped 'til we dropped! By the end of the day our legs were numb and we loved it. Walking 10+ miles a day will do that to you!

DAY ONE...

We arrived around 5 or 6pm Thursday night. So we took a nice stroll through times square and grabbed some dinner. Nothing too eventful. 

DAY TWO...

We woke up bright and early and went to the Today show! It was a blast for a few reasons...First of all, we were on TV!! Wahoo! We looked like dorks but we felt special ;) We also got to see Jason Mraz and Christina Perri perform live and they were really good. And we got to meet everyone who is apart of the show. We love AL!!!

 AL!!!

After the Today show ended around 9 we quickly grabbed breakfast and were off to shop! After shopping for a bit we headed to Little Italy. My Aunt and Uncle told us how great Lombardi's was so we thought we'd give it a try. It was delicious!! The best meatballs I've ever had by far!

 Gelato in Little Italy is a must ;)

We then headed back to our hotel to get ready for our show that night. It was called "Nice Work if You Can Get It" It's Matthew Broderick's play and he acts as the lead roll. It was really fun to watch him in it and he was pretty funny too. After the play is over the cast comes out to sign your program if you want. We were so excited to meet Matthew Broderick but.....when he came out he didn't show a single ounce of happiness! I was so mad at him. He only had to stand out there for ten minutes tops and he couldn't show a single smile to anyone! What a jerk! He was so rude to us. I don't care if you're tired or had a bad day. That's your job, we all paid to see you so you can be nice to us for just a minute and then be on your way. Lame! (Sorry for my venting haha)

 Such a fake half smile

 How he was really feeling and acted....

We all can't stop laughing at this picture now. My mom could barley make it in the photo cause he was being so rude. Matthew looks like he wants to kill us!! haha

DAY THREE...

(I took so many pictures this day it was hard to choose from! I don't know why these ones are looking so weird) After walking down 5th Avenue and looking at all the high-end stores we headed to Central Park. This is one of my favorite things to do in New York! We have a guy drive us around on his bike through the park. The park is huge! We didn't even see the whole thing and we went through 6 miles of it! It's so fun to see where so many movies were filmed and all of the cool street dancers. Central Park is my favorite! 

 The Friends Fountain ;)

 The biggest toy store! It was amazing! We spent almost 2 hours inside..whoops.

 Found the Temple ;)

 Of course we had to go to Serendipity for some Frozen Hot Chocolate. Yum!

DAY FOUR...

We started out this day with a tour and ground zero. It was amazing to see what they have done with it. They have made two giant pools in the footprints where the twin towers were and also built a new building to replace the two. It was such a sad feeling being there. You just see name after name of those whose lives where taken because of that day. 

 We then headed to see the bull from Hitch ;)

 Grand Central Station ;)

 Store owned by the Kardashians. Kind of a disappointment. It was really small, over priced, and the clothes weren't even that cute. 

 The Statue of Liberty behind us. 

 Back to Lombardi's for more Pizza!

Thank you Mom and Dad for sending us on such a fun trip. I had a blast!! 

August Dinner Group

     My friend Michelle was in charge of our August dinner group. She had a fun idea to do it at the park. Everyone brought their dinner and some games to play. It was so fun and a new way of doing our dinner group. Thanks to everyone who could come. It was a blast with all of you!

August Vacations..Part Two

    To finish off our August vacation, we ended in St.George with the Hanks side of our family. We actually flew from Florida to St.George. It was kind of fun taking that flight. It was fun to see the new airport down there and it was such a short flight! We had a blast staying in St.George for a whole week. Usually we are only there for a weekend, so it was nice to relax with everyone and not have to leave quickly. Our week was full of fun activities. We went boating, swimming, hiked the narrows, golfing, shopping, to the temple, to tuachan plays, and much much more! I remembered my camera...but somehow I forgot the camera card in it...yup it was just great. So all of my photos are from my phone. Which is fine but I didn't get as many as I had hoped. I'm going to have to still some from family and add to this soon because there were so many fun times and I wasn't able to capture all of it. But here is what I did get...

Hanks family vacations are always a blast. It's so much fun to hang out with everyone. Thank you Korby and Dave for making it such a fun trip! We are so lucky to have such great family!

August Vacations....Part One

    Jason and I have had a crazy couple of weeks, fun, but busy! One of Jason's best friends was getting married in Sedona, Arizona on August 3rd. And one of my best friends moved to Florida a few months ago and I have been wanting to go visit her. We had both of these plans in mind along with our Hanks family vacation in St.George from Aug. 11-18. Since I work for a school, I was on Summer break. So Jason and I decided that as soon as finals were over we would head to Arizona for the wedding, Florida to visit my friend Vanessa, and then straight to St. George to be with our family. Everything sounded great. Then we received a call that flying to Arizona was out of the picture. ALL the flights were full! Not only did we need to get to Arizona for the wedding but we purchased our tickets to Florida from the Phoenix airport. We needed to get there! So Friday night after my last final we drove to St.George, slept, woke up early and proceeded onto Sedona. We made it in plenty of time and we had a blast at the wedding. When the wedding was over we drove 2 1/2 more hours to Jason's brother, Tyler's home to stay with him and his family. We spent a relaxing Sunday with them before heading to Florida on Monday morning. Bright and early Monday morning we were heading to Florida! I could not wait to see my friend. Once we got there we felt a lot less stress about everything that had been going on. We had a blast with Vanessa and her husband Clayton. Our trip consisted of the beach, aquariums, eating, and even driving to Orlando for the theme parks. It was awesome! I already miss her so much already! :( After Florida we flew to St.George to meet up with our family. More to come....

After knowing that we had a long drive ahead of us I decided to run to the library to see if they had any good books on tape. I had some help choosing...

 What Jason and I looked at for hours!

Finally to Florida!!

Can't wait to visit again!

My Birthday!

     This year my birthday lasted a whole week! We started celebrating my birthday on Sunday the 22nd with the Hanks family. Korby made a wonderful dinner and even got a special cake made for me. It was very thoughtful and very tasty! Then a couple days later we celebrated with the Marsh side by going up Emigration canyon to Ruth's diner. It was delicious and such a fun atmosphere. Friday was my actual birthday and Jason made our plans. During the day I got to do some fun shopping! When Jason got off of work he took me to pick out some new running shoes that I have been wanting to get for forever! After that we headed to Mikado's for some yummy sushi, then to see the new Batman movie. It was such a fun night and we had a blast just the two of us. The last day of celebrating my birthday was this last Sunday. We celebrated with my mom's side of the family by having a fun bbq. Thank you to everyone who made my birthday so fun. I really love you all.