ashley comes to visit

my bff ashley and her husband, lance, came down to visit this weekend. it was so nice to have them here!!!

the first morning they were here we went to visit virg at work. virg was leaving that afternoon to go on the trail for 4 days, so that was the only time we were going to see her all weekend. sad. i love these two a whooole lot.

after that we went and met bj for lunch at 5 guys. lance and bj went to shoot guns that afternoon while ashley and I went to the mall :-). that night the four of us made dinner and just hung out.

saturday morning ashley and lance made us delicious crepes. YUM. lance served his mission in france so they were pretty legit ;-). my favorite was the really thin ones with cream and fruit inside.

after stuffing ourselves with crepes we went to hike camelback mountain. its a pretty popular hike in the valley but for some reason i had never done it. the hike was really pretty but harder than i thought it would be. perhaps the 107 degree weather had something to do with it. we took toby with us and about halfway up he kept laying down, so we decided to turn around. when the weather cools off i want to go again and hike the whole thing. you'll be happy to come with me, right ash ;-)???

lance has a really good friend that lives here, so that night he went to see him while bj went to an asu football game with a friend. ashley and i went and saw 'you again'. it was a cute, lighthearted movie. afterward we got froyo and chatted it up.

this morning we were sad to see them go but hopefully we will see them again soon. love you guys!!!!!!

happy birthday nick and bj!

yesterday was bjs birthday and tomorrow is his younger brother, nick's. happy 25th and 20th, boys! we love you!!

its always so hard for me to decide what to get bj for his birthday. he is such a boy and doesn't like little things... only big, complicated toys. i asked him what he wanted this year and he said a gun. but he told me he didn't want me to buy the gun. i asked him to show me which one and he gave me a print out of the gun with a picture and the nearest vendors to mesa, az. really, that happened. haha. i convinced him i was not buying the gun bc i wanted to surprise him with it. that didn't work though bc i left my email up with the confirmation email on it. blah. someday i WILL surprise him, with something!

tonight our family (that lives here) came over to have cake and ice cream. bjs favorite is cookie cake but the one i made last year turned out nasty so this year i let paradise bakery make it. i am happy to say they did not disappoint.

happy birthday beejster! you're the best and i am so glad your all mine, love you!!!!

date night

am i the only one who feels like we (as a couple) have endless ideas for fun dates and really good intentions to go on those dates...but life always seems to get in the way? for us, it always ends up being the same type of date weekend after weekend. movies, dinner, grilling at home, renting movies, watching sports on tv....ect. at the end of a long week the last thing we really want to do is put a ton of effort into thinking of some creative date. even though we know it would be tons of fun to do AND create great memories, we never seem to get around to it. sad. well now "we" has turned into just me because tonight beej pulled through in the fun date department.

last night bj told me he had a date planned for us on saturday night. i admit i was pretty doubtful that we would actually end up doing whatever it was he had planned. he reminded me of it again this morning and when i went to the store this afternoon he told me to be back by 6pm. when i got back he told me to put on closed toed shoes and get in the car. so i did and thirty minutes later we pulled up to indoor kart racing in Phoenix. we raced twice for 15 minutes each time and it was so much fun! the kart things got up to like 45mph. of course bj won both times but the second time i almost beat him. he said he had a different kart the second time and that it was "much slower" ;-). during the second race he was also hating some guy who kept cutting him off and running into people. so that may have distracted him a little. either way, i almost won! haha.

after we finished racing we went and ate at 5 guys burgers for dinner. SO yummy! we came home and bj pulled out some mint chocolate chip ice cream he secretly bought earlier that morning. sneaky little devil. while we ate our dessert we watched how lose a guy in 10 days. i love that movie, i swear i laugh harder every time i watch it. "so you think im some sort of CRAZY PERSON!?!?"...hahah. anyway, when the movie was almost over bj told me to go look in his dresser drawer where i found this book:

what a smarty pants. a date night scrapbook so we can turn our good intentions into real dates and keep memories about them. how cute is he??!? while we finished the movie i put our date from tonight in

i had no idea bj was putting so much thought into our date tonight. i appreciate him more than he knows. i have been feeling kinda blah lately so this was just the pick-me-up i needed. what a sweet boy.

looks like its my turn to plan the next date...i have great idea and cant wait to plan it out. stay tuned!

so long sweet summer

JUNE:
-we celebrated our 3 year anniversary! yummy food, pretty jewelry and camping gear were exchanged. no pictures from this one...one day ill be better at taking pictures.

- i chopped all my hair off! I've never had short hair but i had been flirting with the idea for a while so i just did it. i have a love/hate relationship with it. bj loves my hair short but sometimes i miss a good ol' ponytail. or maybe i miss that long hair hides 2nd day grease much more effectively than short hair.

my favorite part about short hair is that its so versatile. when i blow dry and straighten it, it looks styled and cute (see above ). but if I'm feeling a lil loco and want to change my look up, i simply let it air dry and BAM! it takes on the Sean wave (see below ). don't be jealous. i mean, he was always the hot one. and of course i look equally as dreamy with the sean wave as sean did back in the day. like you even had to ask on that one.

JULY: went to Texas for a week! it was great to see my family and spend time with my mom, Liz, Tristan and Jonathan. I had not see Jonathan since my wedding 3 years ago! crazy. unfortunately, i once again forgot to take many pictures.

me and my favorite 6 year old ever! i had too much fun with this kid. i wish i could remember all of the hilarious things he said in our conversations. he is the funniest little guy ever.

at the 4th of july breakfast at the church with my beautiful sis, Liz, and Tristan. i didn't get any pics of my mom but she was there too.

while we were in Texas our dog, duke, ran away! he was at bjs parents house with bj and we think the fireworks must have scared him away. bj and his family looked all over town, put up flyer's, and called all the humane societies but they couldn't find him. bj was devastated.

a few weeks after we got home and realized duke was gone for good, we got this little guy:

toby! he is a cute little lab and we are liking him a lot. except we call him duke all the time. oops. and yes people, i realize this is our 4th dog in 4 years. we will try to be more responsible with our children. i cant make any promises though.

AUGUST: Young family reunion! everyone in bjs family had not been together for 3 years. with so many people it's hard to get everyone in one place, at one time. for a week we all ate, talked, laughed and played a lot. a good time was had by all!

what a good lookin' bunch

-in august we also went to Hawaii with these guys (al and Jeremy) for 10 days!

we stayed on the north shore of Oahu in the turtle bay condos. we went cliff jumping, Bogey boarding, lots of swimming, ate yummy food, went to pearl harbor, hiked to a waterfall, did a little snorkeling, read and did lots of laying out. Hawaii is beautiful and i am so glad we were able to go!

that's our summer in a nutshell. i didn't take any classes so it was nice to be on vacation mode for 4 months. school has started again and i am really enjoying my classes. i am happy to say i will be graduating at the end of next summer! yay! i have most definitely taken the scenic route with school but i am glad i am finishing.

well....the end!