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!

LAVA HOT SPRINGS

Codee and I have started our first family tradition! We've decided to go to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho every Labor Day weekend. We went last year after I moved back to Utah from Los Angeles. We really had a good time this year. We stayed at Moose Hollow Lodge again. It's a cute Bed and Breakfast just a couple miles outside of town. They have a parrot named "Sunshine" who LOVES to wake us up in the morning with loud screaming. And they have roosters that crow at 5 a.m. And they just brought in some new ponies to the ranch. Although the animals wake us up we still love it. The couple that runs the B&B are so nice! They made us breakfast in the morning and made sure we were all taken care of.
Our first night in Lava we met up with Codee's friends Lance and Renee who were coincidentally staying the same weekend. We had a few drinks at the local dive before going to the hot springs for a few hours. The mineral water is so good for your skin and relaxes your entire body. After we couldn't take it anymore we ate at another dive cafe in town and headed to a biker bar for some entertainment. We saw a pregnant girl giving lap dances to her friends! It was so funny!! Just the people there were hilarious to watch.
The next day we went into town to hit all the funky shops. We met Lance and Renee for some ice cream and then rented tubes to ride the river. The water was seriously FREEZING! Codee fell off his tube 4 TIMES! And Renee had a pretty nasty fall and scraped her entire arm up. ( I wish I would've got a picture of it). Well 2 times down the river was enough for my freezing butt! Lance and Renee headed home and Codee and I ate at the Royal Pizzeria. We decided to spend the rest of the day at the pool and then head home later. Well the swimming pool put in some new speed slides this year that were SO FUN! I attempted to jump off the 3rd plat from but chickened out and went to the 2nd and then chickened out again and finally jumped off the 1st. HA HA! Codee decided to show me up and do an aerial off the 2nd platform.
We came home a little sun burnt and pretty tired but I can't wait to go back next year.

Moose Hollow Lodge

Sunshine and IPretty Bird!Prince the PonyRaspberry Cheesecake and Chocolate. YUMMY!Renee and LanceCodee and Lance playing dartsLance's dart some how got stuck in the ridiculously hard ceiling.New Speed SlidesGoodbye Lava!

ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING

For those of you who don't know (follow me closely) my grandma is raising her great granddaughter (Mariah) and the great granddaughters half brother Anthany. Mariah is my cousins daughter and has the same mom as Anthany. Anyways, we LOVE these kids! We try and do something with them once every week or two. We've been on many adventures together. From fishing to movies to swimming... we've done it all. It's so nice to give my grandma a break from the day. She definitely deserves it!
Well last week, my grandma's sister in St. George was going in for heart surgery and my grandma went down to be with her. So she asked Codee and I to step in for a few days. These kids aren't too young that they need constant supervision which is nice. We fixed dinner together, played on the swing set, watched the Disney Channel, played in the yard, homework, went to the orthodontist, back to school night, ice cream, packed lunches and made breakfast. Overall, it was a pretty fun couple days and fun to try out parenting. But I think for now we'll just keep Togo an only child.

Mariah going to school

My breakfast crepes
Getting ice cream after "Back 2 School Night"

NATALIE AND MOM'S BIRTHDAY

Natalie and my Mom's birthdays are both at the end of August. Natalie and I celebrated at Ruth's Diner with some of the honeybees. And for my Mom's we went to Market Street cause she loves halibut and they have the best halibut in the world. Happy Birthday Nat and Mom!

Rachel, Anne, Ashley, Monica, Katie and Natalie

SUNDAY DINNER

One perk about my future husband is that he cooks! Check out this dish he made.... First he soaked chicken in Italian dressing and wrapped bacon around it and put them on skewers. He also put potatoes, mushrooms, onions, zucchini and squash on separate skewers and fried it all up. LORD... was it amazing!! And I didn't have to do anything. Not even the dishes! Talk about a lucky girl! YUMMY!!!!!!!!!

EYE SPY... NOTHING

In kindergarten it was decided that I would need glasses. It was very traumatizing to be called "four-eyes" for the first few years of school (kids can be so mean.) I had a brief encounter with contacts in 6th grade and finally made the permanent switch in 8th grade. I have a pair of glasses that I use at night and for studying when I was in college. I absolutely hate being seen in my glasses. They make my eyes look HUGE and I get so embarrassed! All I can think of is being called "four-eyes" again.
Around the end of June one of my contacts chipped (I have hard lenses) which then prompted a visit to my eye doctor. While getting a new prescription I asked about wearing soft lenses. I've heard how much more comfortable they are and wanted to see if I could give them a try. My doctor didn't have my exact prescription in a trial pair but one very similar. She gave the pair to wear until a trial pair of my prescription could come in. The second I put them in I was addicted to the comfort. I couldn't believe I had been missing out for over 10 years! I couldn't even feel them on my eye. Hard lenses always feel like there is an eyelash in your eye but you just have to get used to it.
After a few days I realized I couldn't see as well as I had before. Everything was just too blurry. Once my prescription trial contacts came in I was really hoping they would work. To much disappointment they were worse than the first pair. So the doctor ordered a different brand. To my dismay they still didn't work. By this time it had been over a month since I could really "see". I had a huge breakdown and couldn't stop crying. You don't realize how important your vision is until it's gone. I was starting to wear my glasses everywhere. It was the only way I could see. I really really really didn't want to go back to hard lenses. Once you're had something so great its hard to go backwards. But I was willing to go back just as long as I could see again.
Poor Codee had to endure this emotional roller coaster with me. He finally took me to his friends dad who is an eye doctor in Lehi. I told him all my woes and he thought he could really help me out. Surgery is out of the question because my eyes are so bad. The technology isn't quite there yet. He ordered me 6 pairs of different brands of trial soft lenses. (Only 6 out of 30 contact companies make a prescription strong enough for my eyes. Lame huh?) And they only took 3 days to get in as opposed to my other eye doctors 2 weeks. Still... none of the soft lenses worked. I still couldn't see as well as I had before.
Our last option was to try this new "HYBRID LENS". The center of the contact is hard while the outer part is soft. They were only $400 bucks!! (my sarcastic voice) But if I ordered them and they still didn't work I could send the back for a full refund. So, what the hell. It has been over 2 months since I could see clearly. And you honestly can't put a price on your eyes. Well... drum roll please... THEY WORKED!!! I now have the best of both worlds. The vision I need plus the comfort of a soft lens. I can't even describe how happy I am. Even though my eyes aren't that great I am still so thankful I have them. I can't imagine what it'd be like to be blind. Thank you Dr. Gray for giving me my eyes back!

MY SIDE OF THE STORY

Codee and I have been engaged for almost 2 weeks. I seriously can't believe it! For the first few days I felt like I was in a dream. I had to keep pinching myself to make sure the ring on my finger was real. I was completely caught off guard by the whole proposal.
Just as we were about to leave to go camping I joked to Codee and told him not to forget my ring. I had picked out my ring a couple months ago and was just waiting for him to propose. I honestly had no idea when it was going to happen. I wasn't expecting it for a few more months. Little did I know, my smart alec comment would floor me a few hours later.
When Codee was down on one knee and I had just read the tree's message, I felt this rush of disbelief run through my body. I was completely shocked and didn't even see it coming. I looked at him and said "Are you serious?" (Not exactly what I'd pictured myself saying when I got proposed to.) He told me how happy he is with me and how he can't imagine his life without me in it. He said he wanted to be with me forever. And then... "Rachel will you marry me?" Before another second could pass I told him "Yes". How could I ever be so lucky to deserve this? He jumped up and kissed me. All I could think was that I was really and finally going to marry my best friend... officially. He pulled back and said "Oh, I forgot to put this on". He opened a little gray box and pulled out the shiniest ring I've ever seen in my life and slid it onto my finger. All of a sudden this ring had so much meaning to me... our life together (past, present and future), our commitment to each other and an everlasting bond of love and friendship. As another minute or two passed, the whole thing hit me like a ton of bricks. Everything that had just happened finally set in. I felt my eyes start to well up and I couldn't stop it and it just poured out of me. There I was in the middle of the forest with Codee and a ring on my finger. I told him how much I loved him and how lucky I felt to have him in my life. The moment couldn't have been any better. My cup had runneth over...

THE PROPOSAL!!!

It took me a really long time to decide how I was planning on proposing. I wanted it to be just the two of us, and something unique to just us. Before Rachel moved to California last summer, I went up into American Fork Canyon and carved our initials in a tree, and put it in a frame for her to take with her. I decided that I would do something similar to that, but I would carve our initials, and below that carve Will You Marry Me. My friend Nate and I went up to where Rachel and I were planning on camping this weekend, to carve everything into the trees with me. Everything went fine with the carving, but I was so nervous the whole time. Even though it wasn't going to happen for a few days, I was having butterflies. The time came for Rachel and I to go camping, and it really wasn't looking good for us. The weather didn't seem to want to cooperate with my plans, and the thought of having to come up here again another weekend when it was sunny, was not making me very happy. We arrived at camp and set up the tent and things, then the rain came. It rained for 30 min or so, and then it stopped. I knew I wouldn't have much time before the rain returned, so I insisted that we go on a walk. I could tell that she was a little apprehensive about going on a walk, but I wasn't going to take no for an answer this time. We began walking and the thought of what was going to happen was setting in. With every step, I was becoming a even more of a nervous wreck. Rachel told me later that I was walking so fast, she thought I was choking Togo with leash because I was dragging him up the hill. We got to the spot that we had marked, and I took the leash off of Togo and said "I wonder if he'll run after me into the trees?" I ran, and of course Togo wouldn't follow (He doesn't love me near as much as he loves Rachel) I asked Rachel to come up here to see if Togo would follow her. As she walked up to me, I crouched down acting like I found something in the ground. I told her to come over and look at what I'd found. As she got close, I said "Hey, look at that tree, that's cool." She turned and looked at a tree that I had carved hearts in, but missed the tree that said will you marry me. She turned back again and I said "The other tree." She turned and looked at it for what seemed like an eternity. We are both pretty blurry on what was said next by either of us, but she did say YES (of course) and it turned out to be a really great experience. Pics will be up soon. Sorry, if my story is a little unclear, but it was hard to recall all the details.