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!

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...