INDIAN RUINS

While in Blanding for Thanksgiving Codee and I went on quite the excursion looking at indian ruins. His aunt and uncle own over a hundred acres of land with multiple indian ruins on them. They gave us each a four-wheeler to ride and we set out for the afternoon.
When we started I thought we were just going to one ruin that they had been talking about. But they took us to 5 different places on their property. I can't even begin to describe how amazing everything is. At each ruin you can find broken pottery, arrowheads, tools, jewelry and many other things. What is so amazing about all of it is that the ruins are from the Anasazi Indians from approximately 1500 years ago. YES I said one thousand five hundred years ago. Some archeologists even believe they emerged around 1200 B.C.
With each site we went to the trip became more amazing! I am now completely fascinated with the history of this region. I even brought home a few pieces of broken pottery. You have to see the pictures I took!!! And I apologize now for the picture overload. Words simply can't describe everything we saw. The first 2 ruins had to be dug out. Yes... someone sifted through all the dirt and has uncovered the ancient homes. And you'll see a picture of my brusied, swollen ankle from when I accidently rolled the four-wheeler over myself while going up a steep hill.
Their dogs that seriosuly ran miles while we rode the four-wheelers.

Ridin' dirty

Welcome home!

The front door

Some sort of work place. They think maybe for grinding grain or working with food.

The next ruin


Writing on the wall

Another location

This one was way up on the ledge of a cliff

I don't think I could live a week here...

They think this is where they would sharpen thier tools and sticks

And they saved the best for last. This ruin was underneath a cliff and seriosuly spectacular!










And my big ankle! This was right after it happened, it was literally black 2 days later.

This is some of the pottery, jewelry and tools they've recovered from their property. All the pots were smashed and have been carefully glued back together. They spent over a month looking for one missing piece on one.

THANKSGIVING

For Thanksgiving this year Codee took me down to Blanding to have Thanksgiving with his grandparents. I have never been to Blanding and all I knew is that it was a very small town. So small, it doesn't even have a traffic signal... just a flashing 4-way stop. They do have a Subway (which almost every small town has) and an A&W inside of a gas station. Oh! And they also had a movie theatre! And it surprisingly wasn't playing "Old Yeller".
Codee's grandparents made an AMAZING Thanksgiving feast! Later that night, Codee's grandma showed me pictures from her genealogy book. She had pictures of her family from the late 1800's. It was so fascinating to see so much history! And it was fun to see the pictures of Codee when he was little and pictures of his mom when she was growing up.
I was very surprised with how much fun we had over the weekend. The town holds a lot more excitement then you'd expect.

Codee's grandpa making the best mashed potatoes I've ever had in my life!

Codee's Grandma, Codee's mom Kitt and his brother Kye

Adorable Sydney!

My Thanksgiving feast!

P-DUB

For those of you who know how much I love The Pioneer Woman you can only imagine how excited I was to get her new cookbook and go to her book signing. My friend Kirie is the one who introduced me to this amazing woman and her amazing blog. Kirie flew all the way up from Las Vegas to go to the book signing!
The signing was supposed to start at 7 which was when I was planning on arriving. Little did I know that Pioneer Woman has a HUGE following in Utah. Codee and I made it up to the bookstore only to find out that we'd have to be in line till at least 1 a.m. before we could meet her and have my book signed. UGH! I was so bummed!! Luckily Kirie and her mom had arrived 4 hours early and were at the front of the line to meet her. So I gave my book to Kirie to get signed. I'm still so sad I didn't get to meet her. But at least my book is signed.
And if you haven't heard of The Pionner Woman then you're really missing out. Go to her website right now and make her Apple Dumplings. Then you can die and go to heaven knowing that you've fully lived.

GOBBLE GOBBLE

Heartland Paper has the cutest holiday crafts! I saw this turkey and I had to get the kit to make him! I know it doesn't seem like there is much to him but it took me 4 HOURS to make him! And I am very proud he's done and sitting on the counter. He's going to look so good when Codee and I go to Blanding next week for Thanksgiving. My friend Anne and I are making a Christmas craft from Heartland soon. I'll have the pictures up when we're done.

HALLOWEEN

Every year my family has a Halloween party where everyone brings a soup and we carve pumpkins. Codee and I brought our famous (yes its famous) chicken enchilada soup. Codee's mom and little brother came down from Logan to go with us. Codee's pumpkin was seriously AMAZING! OH! And I need mention that Codee is the worlds fastest pumpkin gut cleaner. He can clean out any regular size pumpkin in under 2.75 minutes.

And for Halloween night we took Mariah and her best friends Chelsey trick-or-treating again this year. Our costumes were very last minute. I threw together a Little Red Riding Hood costume and Codee wore a scary mask. I promise next year I am going to get us some WICKED costumes to make up for us not dressing up the past 2 years.
We started our trick-or-treating excursion in Draper. We thought the huge million dollar mansions by the Draper Temple would be handing out $100 bills. Boy were we wrong. All the girls got was a couple lame tootsie rolls. So went back to our original plan to go back to Canal Road in Taylorsville like we did last year. The houses were much more generous. Each girl ended up with 11 big candy bars and lots of other good stuff.
And my Togo Love was so ADORABLE in his lobster costume! Everyone loved him! He even got a couple dog treats from some houses.

BAYSIDE

Bayside is Codee's favorite band ever! I'm learning to like them more than I used to. The concert was downtown at "In The Venue". It was so crowded! Codee had to rescue me from a mosh pit. And after the show we talked to the members of Bayside at their merchandice booth. I was going to ask them if they'd play at the wedding but I was too scared.

WE'RE ALIVE

First off, I apologize for my lack of blogging the past of couple months. So be ready for blog overload. Not really... I just have a few posts. Truth is, Codee and I have been so busy lately. Codee has had so much homework and busy with the project on 11400 south. And I've been just been scrapbooking and working. We're lame!

MY LOSER DAD

My dad has always been a pretty big guy (if you know what I mean). This was always great in high school because he could scare away the boys he didn't want coming around to pick me up. Well, starting mid-July he decided that he'd had enough. He started taking nightly walks, nothing too difficult. He would go for an hour to an hour and half and listen to his ipod. The first 2 weeks were pretty hard to get into a routine. His walks consisted of 5 miles daily. He also started eating healthier and taking smaller portions.

3 1/2 months later he has kept up his routine and started using the elliptical machine as well. On the weekends he does 2 workouts a day, at least an hour each. Well ladies and gentleman... today he hit his goal of losing 75 LBS!

75 LBS PEOPLE!!!!!!

I am seriously so proud of him. He has decreased his risk of diabetes and heart disease, which is a huge risk factor in our family. Plus he looks SO GOOD! He has gone from a size 40 waist to a 34. Keep it up Dad! I'm so proud of you and love you!!

This is us at my graduation in May. (He went to BYU so this is him trying to display his "Y".)

And 75 lbs later...this is him working out on the elliptical machine.

MANURE WEDDING DREAMS

FRIDAY MORNING. 6 A.M. THIS IS THE PLACE PARK. 20 BRIDES. 4 COMPETITIONS. ONE $20,000 WEDDING PACKAGE GIVEAWAY.
Codee and I were randomly selected to participate in a $20,000 wedding package giveaway last Friday morning. 6 a.m. in Heritage Park is freezing. We gathered with the other couples in one of the little houses where they dressed us up in pioneer attire. I wore a lovely puke colored gown with a pea green apron and Codee wore a button up cowboy shirt with a rancher style vest and a straw hat.
Fox 13 News and 97.1 zht were broadcasting the event all morning. Our first competition was a wedding cake eating contest. Each bride had to eat a 7 inch round cake and finish with a glass of milk. I wanted to start the competition off strong. I didn't get out of my warm bed at 5 a.m. to lose. I pounded the cake like there was no tomorrow and finished in 3rd place. Only 15 brides continued to the next round.
Round 2 was a handcart pulling contest. The grooms sat inside the handcart while the brides pulled them up a hill and around a corner. We raced one other couple and a had a shaky start. (It's harder then it would seem.) But I built up some good momentum and started to pass the other couple. We came to the turn and they totally cut us off. But I kept pulling and kept up with them till the finish line. My legs were shaking so bad! After that round, the wedding cake started to come up. Not fun... But we were judged on time and made it to the next round. 5 couples were eliminated.
For the 3rd round they put us in a corn field with 5 chickens. There were only 10 brides. I have never picked up a chicken and the thought actually scared me. Do they bite? What if it flaps its wings like crazy and hits me in the face? I just tried to picture that I'd be picking up Togo. Surprisingly I got the first chicken! And it was a while before the next ones were caught. The chicken just came over and nicely let me pick her up and hold her. Maybe it was because she had to poo the second I held her. All of sudden we were in the last round! We were pretty stoked. The wedding giveaway could realistically almost be ours.
They didn't really tell us what we'd be doing for the final round. But had us change into these disgusting wedding dresses that looked like they were from the 1940's. Then they put us in front of a pile of horse manure. Yes, I said horse manure. They had buried a men's tungsten wedding band in the pile and the first one to find it won the ring and the entire wedding giveaway. "Ugh! Are you serious?!?!" Is all I could think. But the competitive drive kicked in and I was determined to get that wedding band! It wasn't as bad as I thought. I guess I was just really focused. Manure, hay and dirt were flying EVERYWHERE! After a while they told us which side of the pile it was on and that it was near the edge. Every girl went diving and it was pure chaos. I was digging in my little area and started getting more towards the middle so I concentrated on a area to my side. All of sudden another girl took over my previous spot and within 10 seconds had found the ring! Why was I so impatient? So snatched it before every girl dog piled on top of her. She ran to the other side and do a "manure angel". It was pretty funny actually.
Although we didn't win. We had so much fun competing and still received a gift bad with some wedding goodies and some concert and movie tickets. Plus our faces all over the morning news. If I had the chance to do it again I'd do it in a heartbeat. We just had so much fun doing something so "different" together.

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO HERE...
and I will try and get pictures from the radio station posted soon.
http://vimeo.com/6917696

STATE FAIR 2009

Codee and I attended the State Fair this past Friday. We've been excited about going for quite a while. Our favorite part of the State Fair is the corn on the cob. We seriously talk about it all year long. And it's crazy that we'd spend $12 on 4 ears of corn! But it is worth every dollar and we only get it once a year. All of the food at the fair is so AMAZING! We both had giant corndogs that put "Hot Dog on a Stick" to shame. There is something so magical about the fair, I just can't even describe it. We went and saw all of the animals and got some great pictures for the scrapbook. I just LOVE the baby pigs. One of these days I'm going to buy a pet pot-belly pig like Denise Richards. My other favorite part of the fair is the photography exhibit. I love seeing all the art. I swear ever year that I'm going to enter but I never do. We left the fair listening and dacning to Boys II Men in the concert area. What a great night! We can't wait to do it again next year. Codee with a 3000 lbs. cow!My yummy corndog!
Round 2 of corn!