LESLER

Winter Blues.

2011-01-26T15:05:00.001-08:00

Got the winter blues?

Wish you could go to Jamaica?

Well, me too.

Perhaps you should watch this clip from SNL. Perhaps you will think it is funny. Perhaps you will attempt this technique at song writing. Perhaps you will find yourself singing a song about Jamaica.

Did you watch it? That's fine if you didn't. I rarely watch movies on other peoples blogs- So I understand. Lindsay showed me this video the other day and we died laughing watching it! We tried to replicate it, but much to our dismay, we could not stop laughing. So we were kinda horrible at it. But let me tell you, it sure got rid of our winter blues for the time we spent trying!

Warning: For some reason husbands do not think this is funny.

Books.

2011-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to be one of those people who "toot their own horns" when it comes to their taste in literature. I see these bloggers who make their MUST READ book lists as if they are the creators of the book, as if they alone made the book a good read. I mean, THEY put it on their must read book list- therefore, it is their discovery. Oh please. I can't brag about MY impeccable taste in literature, because let's face it, I don't have impeccable taste in literature. Most people don't. I, like some of you, pretty much read books based on if someone else liked it. I mainly read books suggested by my sister Alli, and I am sure some of you have your go to person who suggests you amazing reads every time.

Anyway, what's the point? Well. Tyler got me a Kindle for Christmas. The Kindle magically SUGGESTS books for you. I wanted to be the person for once who found the book and recommended it to someone else. So I ventured off and started reading books that no one had recommended to me (besides the Kindle). Oh boy, that's when I realized my kindle has a horrible taste in literature! Therefore, I have a horrible taste in literature! Oh my dosh! Eureka!

So I am going to post a few BAD books that I have read and a suggestion for a different book to read. So I can feel like I am cool and have a book list- even if it IS a bad book list :) Disclaimer: There may be some spoilers in these descriptions.

#1 Bad Book
Title: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Why it is Baaaad: This was repulsive. I enjoy books where I can get lost in the world and enjoy the characters. Most of the time I want to BE the main character. I do not however, want to be Lisbeth Salander in anyway shape or form. I only read about 1/3 of the way through it and was already feeling like I was in a deep pit of despair. It is not an uplifting book people. This is the type of book that you'll want to take a shower after spending 5 minutes with these despicable characters. I did not finish it, but I did look up the movie synopsis on IMDB and read how it ended (without the graphic/gory details). That is when I discovered that the movie is rated R. I know many people who saw the movie. None of them told me it was rated R. If I don't watch rated R movies, why would I want to read a book about one? So yeah do not read this book if you feel the same way about rated R flicks as I do.

What to read instead: The Maze Runner Series

Why it is gooood: The Maze Runner is nothing like The Girl with the Tattoo, of this I am fully aware. However, it has all the action, betrayal, suspense that "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" has but it is not as disgusting, and will not leave you feeling hopeless and gross. James Dashner does an incredible job keeping you guessing up to the very end. If you love the Hunger Games series, then you will love this one. Plus I have a super fat crush on Minho. And you will too!

#2 Bad book
Title: Incarceron

Why it is Baaaad: Oh man! What a disappointment! I thought for sure I found my niche with this one. I mean I found this all on my own. And THEN I found out it was being made into a major motion picture with Taylor (Hottner) Lautner and Blake Lively. And I was the first one to find it! No one else told me about it. Well there's a reason for that. This book is awful. I honestly don't know how it is going to be made into a major motion picture. It is dubbed the next Harry Potter crying out loud! Incarceron is a prison. A vast enormous prison where this is no getting in and no getting out. The majority of the plot takes place in Incarceron but I have no idea how to explain it to you. I can't even picture what it looks like! The details of the book are there, they are just written in such a poor way that it is impossible to picture what is going on. And the dialogue is horrible. Most of the time I had no idea who was speaking! The plot is so original and has so much potential- It was just a waste. I couldn't wait to finish it- just so I could be done with it!

What to read instead: I am Number Four

Why it is gooood: Like Incarceron, I am Number Four is a being made into a major motion picture... It has all the sci-fi geekiness that Incarceron has, but it is written WAY better. It has an original plot line that leaves you wanting more! And guess what? You get more because there are like 6 more books to the series. Unlike Incarceron, you are excited to read the next book in the I am Number Four series. You actually anticipate it.

#3 Bad Book
Title: The entire Twilight series

Why it is Baaaad: I know I am going to get flamed for this... but it's true. I admit it. I don't like this series. I pretend because I LOVE going to the movies with my sisters and I love the concept of being an uber fan for anything. But let's face it... Bella? Come on. You know when you want to slap the main character in the face that something is wrong here. Anyone else want to wake her up? What I particularly don't like about it is that it teaches young girls that its OK to give up school and your family as long as you are madly in love with a a dangerous 100 year old man trapped in a teenage boy body. Could it be that this book is on my bad list because I am eternally Team Jacob and (SPOILER ALERT!!!) she doesn't pick Jacob in the end? Could it be that the author totally warps and bends the rules on vampires and makes it so Edward and Bella magically have a baby? Yes and yes. I feel like Stephenie Meyer had intended for Bella to pick Jacob all along and then realized that the die hard Edward fans would just die if she didn't end up a vampire like Edward... So she shamelessly bent the rules and made it so they could have a baby and Bella could stay in touch with her family. But the rules were bent too far for me!

What to read instead: The twilight series :)

Why it is gooood: Ok so I hate the ending... but if it can make me this upset then it has to be a little bit good. Right?

But really... what you should REALLY read is: MATCHED

Why it is gooood: This has been super popular as of late on all the blogs, but Alli told me about this book months ago. So she needs some of the credit. I loved this book. I wouldn't recommend reading this directly after the Hunger Games simply because you will have the mindset of rebellions and bloodshed against society. And this book simply just doesn't give you that satisfaction. In fact, this is more of a love story set in a controlling dystopian society where everything is chosen for you... your caloric intake, your activities, your career, your match. Since society has carefully chosen everything for you, you are seemingly living at your full potential of life. However, there's a seed of wonder growing in the main character Cassia and such the story goes for the novel Matched. It is a good easy read. The second book Crossed doesn't come out until November though- So I would hold off on reading this one if you don't like to be left hanging.

#4 Bad Book
Title: The Time Travelers Wife

Why it is baaad: Ugh. I bought this book at the airport while Tyler and I were on our honeymoon. I was all, hey man, this book has the word wife in it and now I'm a wife so I am totally going to read this and it is going to be so romantic. This book is not romantic in the slightest. There was a lot of swearing and gross scenes that made me want to take a shower. And P.s. It's not even about the wife, it's about the time traveller.

What to read instead: I do, Now What?

Why it is goood: Ok I love Giuliana and Bill. LOVE THEM. If you are newly married and want to read a nice book with romance, then read this. It is realistic, and it paints a true picture of what a real life married couple is like. Even if you've been married for a while, Giuliana will make you pee your pants with her stories and you'll just fall in love with their relationship and therefore, your own relationship. If you want to borrow it from me you can, just ask me!

What's next?

TRYLLE TRILOGY

Right now I am reading TORN which is the second book in the Trylle trilogy. The books have all been written so you don't have to wait for the last book to come out! It has a great love story with out (FINALLY) the stupid love triangle. I am really diggin the supernatural element to these books. So really, you should check them out!

Okay and that is all for now. Sorry for boring you with my "taste" in literature, if you can even call it that!

Snowboarding. Tron. And Giants.

2011-01-23T22:14:00.000-08:00

Ugh. It was my idea. Don't you hate it when you have a seemingly terrific idea and it doesn't pan out the way it was meant to? Well, I do. That is precisely how I felt as we made our way up to Beaver Mountain the other day. I persuasively convinced Tyler to take me up to a wonderful day of fluffy Utah snow at Beaver Mountain. However, we were greatly disappointed when we arrived. It was as though we were ice skating down a mountain. Not pleasant to say to least.

The only glimmer of hope on such a sad day came towards the end in a form of my loving husband trying to cheer me up. Apparently, I wasn't hiding my drudgery very well, which inspired Tyler to make me a Tron disc out of the ice so I could throw it at him. Guys- Do I have the best husband or what?! I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I have come to realize that the camera is the last thing I think about when I am having the most fun. We spent the rest of the day passing the disc to each other down the mountain, and being total dorks... but it is OK. We decided that we were lucky to have boarded a few hours without getting injured in such conditions, so we left.

So, what do you do when you leave the world's worst day of skiing.. with the world's worst snow conditions? Well DUH, you visit the world's largest snowman of course!

Running. And Tron.

2011-01-11T16:41:00.000-08:00

Ok. I love Tron. There. I said it. In fact, I love it so much that I downloaded the soundtrack to it and it is all I listen to. I have the tendency to do this though. For instance, Alli and I once stayed up all night playing Lord of the Rings video games. It got to the point that we were both throwing up because we were so motion sick. Regardless, I love Lord of the Rings and that is just one example of how when I love something, I REALLY love something. Another example is how I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl 8 times in the theater. 8 times people. For those of you that know me, you know I really dislike going to the movie theater so going 8 times for one movie is a big deal. The last example is INCEPTION. I just barely watched it for the first time and it is enough to drive me MAD. I mean am I dreaming right now, am I making all this up? GAH! Maddening.

I apologize for getting off track, the real reason I am here writing this post is to talk about Tron. More specifically Tron:Legacy. As I mentioned earlier, I have been listening to the soundtrack non stop and it is actually to the point where I am geeking out and pretending that I am Tron.

On new year's day I found myself in an all black "stretchy" outfit, listening to Tron, running around the Chambers bay golf course. I couldn't believe what a geek I had become but I couldn't help it. I threw pretend "electro discs" at Tyler and yelled "I fight for the users!!!" as I ran past him. The only consolation I had was that Alli was dressed up just like me and I know she wanted to do the same thing.

Anyway, we had a great run around the golf course and took lots of pictures. Ran into some people we knew (totally embarrassing) and got a really good work out.

That's why I like the soundtrack so much- it makes me run faster. And run for longer periods of time. Therefore, Daft Punk must win an Oscar for their score. It is awesome. I just won't have it any other way.

Why am I telling you this? Well Tron helps me because as one of my new years resolutions, I am training for a half marathon this year. And lets be honest, I need all the help I can get. I am telling you about this resolution so I will have some accountability to actually go through with it. So if a movie can make me run faster by inspiring to run like I am in the movie and if a soundtrack can motivate me to keep going... well then so be it. I will be a dork.

December 2010.

2011-01-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

Guys! I am almost there, the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. This is my last post before I can return to regular scheduled programming. What a good feeling.

The majority of December was spent in Washington with my fam. It was so fun. I had only one sinus infection that threatened to derail my holiday plans and it was quickly conquered by antibiotics. But before I get ahead of myself, let me document about our sister trip to see the lights at temple square. This was a fun night but was unnecessarily stressful at times which can only be accounted for the fact that anytime Lindsay and I get together it is straight up chaos. The smart part of our brains just turn off when we get together. Anyway- we started out the night at The Old Spaghetti Factory, followed by a wild ride throughout downtown Salt Lake (hehe), then finally making it to Temple Square! The lights were spectacular this year. Par was being rather rambunctious at OSF but the moment we saw the lights he was in awe and didn't say a word. He loved seeing all the nativities and pointing out baby Jesus and the sheep.

I am not sure what they are doing in this picture but doesn't their skin look flawless?!

I was having what I call a Khloe Kardashian complex that night. What is a Khloe Kardashian complex you ask? Well... it's when you have 2 super cute, petite, stylish sisters and you are the ogre that towers over them in every single picture. I couldn't find a cute picture of us and this is the only one of us 3 together that I will allow to post because I am crouched down and they are making silly faces to try and make me look cuter. I was not amused. I love my sisters but every now and then I get the Khloe complex and can't be in pictures with them!

The holiday season was quite the success. Very well rounded if you ask me... we even received a little snow in Washington, which is a rare occasion. Most of our vacation time was spent either at the mall, at zoo lights, watching movies in the love sac by the fire, snowboarding, visiting the Seattle Temple, eating at Cheesecake Factory/Panera Bread, playing games, going to church, playing on the beach, and of course spending much needed time with family.

One of the first documented activities was Zoo lights at the Point Defiance Zoo. This is a great zoo people, so great that they give rides on the back of camels! Much to your (and our) disappointment, we did not participate on the camel ride. Next time though!

Christmas rolled around and well, I think I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Tyler got me a Kindle. Oh. My. Heck. I love it! I can read all the books I want now! Muahaha! I am reading The Scorch Trials which is the sequel to Maze Runner. It's a really good series. Check it out!

After Christmas we went to to the Seattle LDS Temple and it was so fun to go to a different temple!

We also went snowboarding up at Crystal Mountain and had a blast.

Next on the agenda was a trip to Oregon! We went to Cannon Beach and Seaside and ended up in Portland.

Check out my cartwheel skills! I look like a freaking ninja. Awesome. :)

New Years Eve rolled around and we had a hoot of a time playing uno and farkle and banging pots and pans as well as eating the mandatory chinese food.

We had such a blast this year! Thanks so much family for making it a grand old time!

November 2010.

2011-01-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

Here is my favorite month of the year again! Unlike November 2009, I really did not manage to take a whole lot of pictures. My camera seemed to be missing in action during most of the festivities including Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and The ROCKETTES with the Denning sistas!

(Thanks Aunt Sue for the Birthday cake you brought me at work!)

Fortunately for the sake of this post, I did have my camera on my birthday. Tyler totally surprised me this year by coming to my office and getting me off work early! That was enough of a present in and of itself right there. However, the surprises did not end there... We drove to Salt Lake and went on a shopping spree at the Gateway. Am I the luckiest girl or what?

Next on the agenda was a romantic 4 course meal at The Melting Pot. You guys, could you die? I mean, a 4 course meal at THE Melting Pot, come on. I was in heaven. If you have never had the pleasure of dining at this glorious place, I would highly recommend considering it today.

I would advise scheduling this dining experience around a special occasion, or holiday simply because the price of such a meal. It really is an experience and I love the fact that Tyler usually takes me on my birthday, or Valentines day, or maybe our anniversary this year? Fingers are crossed.

Please take note of my NEW leather jacket! I love my leather jacket- makes me feel like I'm in an episode of Vampire Diaries.

I love to fondue. Especially the dessert course. You simply cannot go wrong with this dessert.

After our very romantic 2 1/2 hour meal, Tyler still had more tricks up his sleeve and took me to the Jazz game. The Jazz won- for my birthday. I'm sure Tyler put in that request.

Just when I thought there could be no more surprises, Tyler surprised me and got me an IPhone. Yeah, I know, I am spoiled rotten. Thanks for the super fun day Tyler! I owe ya one. Now the pressure is on me to come up with great surprises for that birthday coming up.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't have any pictures of Thanksgiving or the Rockettes... but let me tell you, both festivities were a hoot!

To end this November post, lets not forget to mention that blizzard of 2010!

October 2010.

2011-01-10T06:04:00.000-08:00

I loved this past October. General Conference, my Dad coming to visit, Disneyland, Park City, beating BYU in football, homecoming, Halloween. It makes me wish I had a time machine to relive October 2010 over and over again.

Playing in the fountains at the Gateway.

At the USU/BYU football game.

Playing at the park with this nerd bomber. How about that unseasonably warm October weather?! I miss that.

At the Homecoming football game with Grandma Pat!

Alli, Tony, Tyler and myself made the voyage to my homeland... Disneyland. Oh it was delightful. It was supposed to be for mine and Tyler's anniversary but I wasn't allowed to take work off for the month of August so we pushed it back to October, and picked up some hooligans to come with us. It was super fun. We stayed at the Hojo for $59 a night. HELLO MCFLY! Entertainment rate people! If you want to learn more about this offer let me know, I am pro at explaining it.

We were also coerced by key-saver, or formally known as key-loser, to go to Magic Mountain. Where unfortunately, the infamous "Tatsu sweats" were diagnosed and treated. Don't bother trying to google "Tatsu sweats", instead just take my word for it and understand that they are not pleasant. The "Tatsu sweats" are completely treatable. Symptoms include, but are not limited to, extreme nausea, dizziness, feeling like your brains are seeping through each and every pore on your forehead, loss of memory of walking off the ride, excruciating pounding behind the eyes, and of course an abnormal amount of sweating. See for yourself.... It was not pleasant.

Fortunately, it can be treated. Treatment includes, spending over an hour in massage chairs taking naps, guzzling insane amounts of water, and getting pep talks from Tyler who by the way was having WAY too much fun teasing us at our expense.

Dr. Tyler fixed us up nice and fine and we were able to finish the day with flying colors. Although, I think it will be a while before we go to Magic Mountain again.

October isn't quite over yet! Tyler surprised me by planning a mini-vacay to Park City! We stayed at the Newpark Resort, which IS my favorite hotel, and we had the time of our lives! Our hotel room came equipped with our own hot tub on the balcony, a full kitchen, fireplace, and the most comfy king sized bed imaginable. Our vacation was spent watching basketball games on the flat screen tv while in the hot tub and while drinking sparkling cider (duh), eating at great restaurants, relaxing by the fire, shopping in the rain at the outlets, and a visit to the Olympic Village. It was so fun. I am even making myself jealous of my own vacation.

We also had Halloween and the pumpkin walk! I had never been to the pumpkin walk before so it was a treat to be able to go! In fact, I would love to do a pumpkin display this year! But we will see.

I can't believe I am almost caught up on blogging! NICE! Just a few more months to go.

September 2010.

2011-01-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

Aggie football season was in full swing and although it promised to be a better season, it well... wasn't. We did beat BYU and that victory will last me years! ;)

September was also spent frequenting Chick-fil-a and dining out with the Parster. I had never had the pleasure of eating at Chick-fil-a until this past September and oh boy was I missing out! One word: SAUCE!

I must also give an honorable mention to Suzanne Collins for keeping me thoroughly entertained in September. I read the entire Hunger Games series in a matter of days, then I had to re-read them because they were THAT good. If anyone is looking for an epic series to read... then this is it! Plus they are making it into a movie. Hunger Games blows Twilight out of the water- honestly. Here is a fake trailer, which in my opinion is one of the more accurate depictions of what the first movie may be like... I know what you're thinking, I am TOTALLY geeking out right now.

We wrapped up September celebrating Lindsay's birthday. Jake took her to the circus... he got her the suite for cryin' out loud! What a guy. Of course I demanded that Tyler and I watch Parley for them and man oh man did we have fun playing parents for the night. It is a lot of fun to babysit, but even more fun to give the baby back to their parents after winding them up. Mwahaha!

And that ends September 2010.

August 2010.

2011-01-08T21:09:00.000-08:00

We finally moved out of our "luxury" apartment. Luxury smuxery. It was a fun "1st year of marriage experience" living there though. We celebrated our moving out by taking a trip up to Bear Lake with the Denning's. It was so fun and a much needed trip.

We also celebrated our 1 year anniversary! People kept telling me that the 1st year of marriage was the worst and then you'll fight and be mad all the time. However, I didn't think it was all that bad. Don't get me wrong it's not like we didn't get in arguments, it's just it wasn't as bad as certain people made it out to be. Just sayin'.

My little bro came into to town to start his college career as an Aggie. So the fam came with him and we partied! We went to Wheeler Farm, hung out in Kaysville, and apparently dressed up as Winnie the Pooh and scared the Parster. I don't understand how my Mom always manages to allude these photos... She's not in any of these. Sorry Mom.

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It is so fun to have the brother down here as a Utah State Aggie!

July 2010.

2011-01-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

Fireworks. Birthdays. Boating. That is how July can be summed up! We spent the 4th barbecuing and lighting off fireworks at Aunt Sue's house. We also roasted marshmallows and made smores. I am not sure why I don't have any pictures of that celebration... but I do remember it was a hoot.

Then the Parley boy had his 1st Birthday party! They celebrated up at the cabin at Bear Lake and invited us all. Par opened presents, ate cake, went swimming and had one heck of a first birthday if you ask me! Lindsay made that happy birthday banner, way to be talented Linds!

We also spent July boating, swimming in the pool, and playing in the sun.

Good times had by all.

June 2010.

2011-01-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

June is going to be HUGE. I loved June. It was such a super fun month. My baby brother Tony graduated from High School! I still can't believe it. He is in college now, which means, oh my heck, I am freaking old. Naturally, ALL the relatives made the trip to Washington to see him Graduate. Not only did he graduate with top honors, but he was also the student speaker! His speech was hilarious and he received a standing ovation for his efforts.

It was a blast celebrating Tony's accomplishment with the Fam. We ran the Sound to Narrows race, ate out on the Puget Sound waterfront, played outside with Mr. Par, and made a day trip to Seattle.

We were also in desperate need to celebrate Tyler's graduation in June. So we did what any other person would do when they can't afford to go to Disneyland... We went to the Oregon Coast! We voyaged our way down the coast stopping at Astoria (Goonies!), Seaside, Cannon Beach, Lincoln City, and Depoe Bay. Apparently summer festivities don't start in Seaside until July so our bumper cars were closed. Nevertheless, we still played in the arcade and strut our stuff down the boardwalk. At Cannon Beach we made a necessary stop at Pizza A'fetta. Let me tell you something: Pizza A'fetta has the best pizza in the western United States. Hands down. Don't believe me? Well its your loss for not trying it! BEST. PIZZA. EVER.

At last, we made our way to Lincoln City where we checked into our hotel. Apparently, June is the time to travel down the Oregon coast because it was a ghost town. We were the only ones on the beach, only ones at the pool, only ones picking out salt water taffy and the only ones trying to build a bon fire in the pouring rain (Tyler was convinced it wasn't rain- "It's just ocean mist!!!").

Somehow the infamous doll head made it into my purse. So it gave a whole new meaning to "Inn at Spanish HEAD" Mwahaha.

We made it back to Utah just in time for Kelristopher's wedding! Holy cow their wedding was a hoot! It was a prime reflection of their personalities and relationship. Bright colors, fiesta, Mexican food, pinata... It was perfect!

Before I end this post can I just post this one hilarious picture I found in my June file?

What is he doing?! He is such a jokester I love it. The End.

May 2010.

2011-01-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

Graduation!

The day finally arrived where pretty much everyone and their Mom graduated from USU. Tyler started off the weekend by obtaining his Masters of Business Administration. He is so smart it is almost sickening. I would brag about all the awards and things he accomplished while working on his masters degree, but alas, that is not his style. It is totally my style, but Tyler is very humble and I would just be embarrassing him by saying anything. So we'll just leave it at this: Tyler is very intelligent and I am lucky that I snatched him up!

The next day several under grads graduated with their Bachelors! The company included the likes of Alli, Kelsi, Jamie, and Sharrah! It was a fun filled day consisting of picture taking, parties, food, and family.
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Utah State Hey Aggies all the way! Go Aggies, Go Aggies HEY HEY HEY! :) I'm sure more happened in May but I only have Graduation pictures in my file.. so this one subject will have to suffice for May.

April 2010

2011-01-06T17:55:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Tyler's Birthday in April! Wahoo! We went to the Jazz/Suns game for the big day. From what I remember, we lost... and I gather that it was a rather big loss because we lost home court or something like that? It's Ok though because I still got Tyler a freaking sweet GPS for his B-day. Who needs the Jazz to win when you get a dope present like that? Pshh. Stinkin Jazz.

April also sparked the countdown to the big MBA graduation. All the graduating MBA students (and their awesome spouses) were invited to a gathering with L. Tom Perry. We chatted, mingled and ate some fantastic food (way to go Elements!) to celebrate all the hard work the grad students put in this year. This is a picture of Tyler's "posse" and L. Tom Perry.

In the next post which will contain GRADUATION pictures, I will brag about Tyler, and how smart he is. Someone has to be the intelligent one in this relationship- So thank you Tyler for taking that responsibility. Oh and thanks for also being the responsible one. You're the best. Ok. That is all for now!

March 2010.

2011-01-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

In March my BFF Kelsi got engaged! I was so happy/excited for them I almost started to cry when she told me the news. Is it really necessary for me to express my love for weddings? Not to mention a Kelristopher wedding at that?! I don't think so.

I was honored to be able to go dress shopping with the Boston gals. In true Kelsi fashion, she found the perfect dress for her in under an hour. Not only was it the perfect Kelsi dress, but it was THE most perfect price. I bet my mom wishes I shopped more like Kelsi!

I also think in March Kelsi and Chris got their engagements done by the best photographer ever Moments by Kellee! We shot pics all day and then ate dinner at some restaurant in West Valley? I don't remember what it was called but it was dang good let me tell you.

I apologize to Kels that this post was all about you and Chris... but apparently you were my March!

February 2010.

2011-01-06T07:11:00.000-08:00

This was a task and a half to round up some pics from this month! We started out February by getting brain washed by the Superbowl commercials and wound up buying a Hyundai Sonata! Subliminal messages would work on us. Despite the obvious brain washing, we love our new car!

Valentines day rolled around and Lindsay hosted a dinner party. One day when Tyler and I have our own house, I hope to be as good of a hostess as she is. The Valentines dinner consisted of a delectable turkey, roasted potatoes and other divine dishes. Parley was the main attraction though, of course!

We wrapped up February by celebrating Alli's birthday. Look at that cake! Now that's what I call brain calories. Caution: brain calories are hazardous to your diet.

And that's all I have to say about that.

January 2010

2011-01-05T08:08:00.000-08:00

Fresh new year! Yay. This means I am only 1 year behind on blogging. I would like to say that January was a bright hope after our rough December... unfortunately that cannot be said. Wow I am such a downer. There was one bright spot- INSURANCE. I was so grateful that we had health insurance this month. Tyler separated his shoulder snowboarding at the Beav. That was a sickening phone call, even though it was just a shoulder separation-it could have been a lot worse. I wasn't up there with him when he did it so for all I know he was doing something crazy and that caused his shoulder to separate. Regardless, I am thankful for insurance!

Needless to say that ended our snowboarding careers for the season. At least we got one good day up there together.

We also gathered a group of friends together and went to the Jazz game. The tradition was kept alive by going to Crown Burger beforehand. As I recall, the game kinda sucked (we won by like 50 points).. but we sure had a hoot sitting up there in the last row. I just remember laughing so hard I had to go buy a water bottle. We should do this again guys!

January was also the month we started experimenting with recipes. Check out this homemade pizza dough. It was the sick-nastiest pizza I have ever had. Oh well- we had fun making it!

That does it for January... now we're getting to the months where I don't have any pictures so I will have to start getting creative on what I will post.

December 2009.

2011-01-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

Alright. December, December. What to say? December 2009 started out great! Kelsi and Chris invited us to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Spectacular featuring Natalie Cole. Oh man what a fun night. I just love Kelristopher. It was FREEZING cold that night so we bundled up hardcore.

We also went down to watch my Grandpa lead the men's missionary choir in the tabernacle. What a great experience! It was so fun to see all the cousins and go back to G & G's apartment to drink hot cocoa.

While at Disneyland for my Birthday, I found these super cute ornaments for our Christmas tree! Aren't they just so super cute?!

I love our Christmas tree. This picture reminds me that I also broke our tube TV (not on purpose- well maybe a little on purpose) so we conveniently bought a nice new flat screen LCD TV. We are so classy.

The rest of December was spent studying for finals, Christmas shopping, working (boo!)and of course spending the Holiday season with family.

I was sick for pretty much the whole month of December. Like, not just I have a tiny scratch in my throat but I am still going to blow it out of proportion sick, but more like barfing, fevering, achy type of sick that you pretend you're not sick because you have to go to work and spend time with your family that flew in from Washington sick! Blah. I thought I was dying. I'm pretty sure I had an ulcer in my stomach that was going to kill me. Everyone else thought I was pregnant. Alas, neither of those accusations came to fruition. I didn't die, nor did I have a baby!

I wasn't here for this...

Or this...

I didn't take many pictures on Christmas because I missed out on all the activities. I missed out on the Denning Christmas Eve party. I didn't get to participate in the Denning family White Elephant gift exchange. I got left out of the Brown family sibling gift tradition. Missed the food, games, presents, family time. Oh it was so depressing. No one wanted to hang out with me because I was throwing up. I spent all day Christmas Eve in my bed by myself... that is until Tyler came home from his parents house that night and we watched Jingle all the Way.

Christmas morning I faked like I was all better. I apologize to Tyler and Tyler's family and my family for being a Christmas ruiner.

I was still sick by New Year's... I fell asleep at 9 o'clock and didn't even drink any sparking cider. Needless to say, there were no pictures that night. No pictures, no resolutions, no bubbly. Wow.. I am depressing myself!

Anyway, enough of December 2009. Moving on!!! :)

November 2009.

2011-01-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

Ah yes... November. I love November. It is my most favorite month! November 2009 was awesome. As I look through all these pictures, I am realizing why I stopped blogging... I was having waayyy too much fun. I just didn't have time. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I am not having fun right NOW.. it is just that I have made a conscience effort to blog now. I basically spent all day putting together all these "catch up" posts and now you all get the pleasure of reading these as they are scheduled to post! Wahoo! So without further ado, here is November 2009...

Tyler surprised me for my birthday and got me a new point and shoot camera! Oh I was so excited. He took pictures of me opening the camera but I look ugly in them so I don't feel like posting them on here. HAH! I love that I can do that.

Anyway.. everyone knows that when you get a new camera it requires a trip to Disneyland to test it out, right? RIGHT?! Well that is precisely what we did. Since it was my birthday, I got in for FREE. Disney should do that promotion again. In fact, I think I will write them a letter and express my love for the birthday promotion.
We stayed at the Hotel Menage (almost my favorite hotel) and had a freaking blast!

It was a choice day indeed. Check it out.

I wanted a pony. Clearly, Santa doesn't have a sense of humor.

I love New Orleans Square at Christmas time.

Happy Birthday to me! My free Birthday beignet from Cafe Orleans!

Oh my heck! Not only did we do Disney for my Birthday, we also had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving in Las Vegas. Thanksgiving weekend was spent playing football, bowling, shopping, eating, hanging out on the strip, and playing with the Parster of course!

I just love November. Best month of the year in my opinion. Ok sorry for the picture overload but that pretty much sums up this glorious month for you all!

October 2009.

2011-01-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

October was spent at the Aggie Football games, more school, more work and of course a little play in there as well!

My work randomly let us have a Friday off so Tyler and I took major advantage and went to Park City for the weekend! I love PC in the fall. So much in fact that I think we have made it a tradition to go there every October. Cheap hotel rates, great weather and fewer crowds. It is the bomb to say the least. We stayed at Park City Peaks (not my favorite hotel) and ate at the Loco Lizard, went shopping, hot tubbing, and visited the Olympic training center where we got to watch the preliminary trials for the Olympics! BOO YEAH!

For Halloween, Tyler got us tickets to the Real Salt Lake playoff game. Real won and they eventually went on to win the whole shebang! Pretty neat.

And last but not least, we got to see the Parster on Halloween! I just love him in his little skeleton costume!

Super fun October indeed.

September 2009.

2011-01-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

Reviving this blog has proven to be more daunting than expected. I do not appreciate looking at the sidebar and seeing ZERO posts for 2010. Therefore, I am going to go back through pictures and document what we have done in those missing months. OK?

Starting with September 2009...

We continued with newlywed life and had our open house in Washington. Guess what? It POURED there too! I'm telling you, if rain on your wedding day is supposed to be good luck, then we are currently having the luckiest marriage EVER!

After our open house we went on a mini vacay to Portland OR. We stayed at the Embassy Suites and had a great breakfast, shopped and played too much Balderdash. Tom Morgan anyone? ;)

We also spent a lot of time swimming in our pool and finding our fridge/freezer mysteriously stocked up with food/50 dollar bills!? Thanks FAMILY!

Not only did we manage to do all this in one month, we also went to Disneyland with the Dennings (already blogged) and worked/went to school full time. Busy month! Stayed tuned for October 2009.

New Header.

2011-01-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

Alli made this super cute header for the blog! I think it captures our personalities quite well. If you want her to make you one for your blog, just ask her! I know she would LOVE to!

Resolution.

2011-01-01T10:58:00.000-08:00

I'M BACK!

I have a New Year's Resolution to start blogging again.

I had a great 2010- it was a whirlwind to say the least! And we are still spinning our way into 2011. So buckle up and get ready for some blogging action. Happy New Year!

Disney Park Bench.

2009-10-17T09:27:00.001-07:00

I have an obsession. I love Disney.

Some of you may think I'm silly for having such an obsession. But to each his own.

My love for Disney stems back ages ago. I remember going to Disneyland with my family as a young child. I have been with my cousins. I have been with my in-laws. I have been on my Birthday. I have seen the cast of High School Musical perform. I have seen the taping of the Christmas Day parade. I have made it on Television while watching the Christmas Day parade. I have gone with my friends for Spring Break. I have been to Disney World on my Honeymoon. I have spent the day at Disneyland with Tyler right after he got home from his mission. It was the first time we had seen each other for 2 whole years.

I have many fond memories of Disney.

One of my fondest would have to be the day that Tyler and I spent in the parks after just getting home from his mission. We were walking through the park enjoying each others company when we saw an elderly couple sitting on a bench laughing and holding hands. I remember how powerful that image was. Tyler promised me then and there that HE would be that man sitting next to me on that park bench when we were 90 years old.

I came across this vintage photo taken off a Disney blog. It about took my breath away!

Today I am so happy that I have that person who will sit with me and hold my hand on that park bench... I just had to share it with everyone! :)

Future Aggie!

2009-10-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

Oh I just LOVE him!!!

But with that babyface, how can ya not!? Love you Parster!

California Knows How to Party

2009-09-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

We just got back from the grand Denning Family Reunion in SoCal. It was a total BLAST. So let me share some vacation goodness with you...

It all started with the miracle of the Air Conditioner. And it only got better from there! In case you've been living in a cave, you know that Tyler has a huge family. There were about 30 of us in all. It was great! We practically had a whole plane full of Dennings and a whole floor in the hotel to ourselves!

We started off the trip with Knotts Berry Farm. I had never been there before so it was all new and exciting to me. Depsite the fact that it is pretty much ran by 16 year olds, it was still fun! We encountered some of the trashiest people I have ever seen in my LIFE there... but it all made for good stories. I mean, really, who the H smokes while riding a roller coaster?! And then gets away with it? Only at Knotts...

That night began the Denning Hot tub takeover nights. It felt so good to put your feet in the hot tub. And the cold tub. I'm glad Bryton was somehow convinced that girls were no longer banished from the hot tub. That was nice of him. ;)

Then we were off to San Diego to spend the day at Sea World. I had not been to Sea World since the infamous trip with my family when we were all throwing up with strep throat. SO, as you can imagine, I didn't have the fondest memories of Sea World. However, this trip consisted of much less vomit. Shamu was great fun. The little kids were drenched in that whale water and I was very thankful they didn't make me sit in the soak zone with them! We saw flamingos and sharks and watched the Sea Lion show. We also watched a Sesame Street 4-D extravaganza show. Tori and I did pretty good plugging up the spouts that are supposed to shoot water at you until the very last one where I think all the water that I'd been plugging up throughout the show came out and soaked me. I guess it wasn't the best idea after all. And then we rode the rides. Did you know Sea World has rides now?! They were fun rides too! We were soaked on the rapids ride thanks to random strangers who spent an abundance of money just to shoot people with water! Bryton and Chad also got us pretty good on the journey to Atlantis ride as well! Oh what a fun day.

California Adventure was up next. Tyler had warned me that operations move slower when you have a large group like we had but there was no need for any time of warning whatsoever. We did everything and more at DCA!

I lost my stomach on Tower of Terror, we all were scared to death at the Bug's life show, we smelled the oranges on Soarin', shot some targets on Toy Story Mania and were greeted on the rides since we wore our fam reunion pins. "Welcome the Denning family reunion!"

Tyler and I rounded up some Birthday pins for the September Birthdays in the fam as well. Brooklyn turned 8 and was wished a Happy Birthday on all the rides. It was special :)

That night consisted of more pool partying and cheerleading stunt moves in the pool and hot tub takeovers. It was great! We also discovered the goodness of Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt. Delicious!

The next day was (for lack of a better word) eventful. We spent the morning shopping at Fashion Island. I didn't even make a dent in that mall. It was HUGE! Tyler spent the whole time doing homework but couldn't for the life of him connect to the internet to submit his work. I'll be darned if he did all that work if he wasn't even going to get the credit for it- which is where the next miracle came in to play. I somehow managed to connect in the food court. Yeah. ME of all people. I am technology illiterate and somehow I pushed some button to make it work so Tyler was able to submit his homework. So it turned out to be a happy day after all! Woo hoo!

After that hooplah, we made our way to Newport Beach. Thanks Uncle Ben for the directions! I forgot how tricky that is to get there! We spent the afternoon boogie boarding and wave jumping and playing in the sand.

We headed home to get ready for the Angels/Yankees game. Don't be fooled by our attire. We were at the right stadium. :)
The game was way fun. I can't believe the Hall and Williams families are YANKEE fans. You've got to be kidding me! I cheered for the Angels by default because there is NO WAY I could ever cheer for the evil empire. The Angels almost made a great comeback thanks to the rally monkey but it wasn't good enough. And the empire won. We did get to boo all their All-Stars which is a rarity that they were all playing. I haven't been able to boo A-ROD in years and it felt so good! I still think it is WAY more fun to boo the Yankees than to cheer for them. :)
The day came when we went to Disneyland! And boy was it hot. We were all there in the glorious 100 degree weather and all!
Consequently, we ended up buying a few too many frozen lemonades to battle the heat. It was a complete blast though. The crowds were minimal due to the heat and so we did everything we wanted to do! Unfortunately, my camera battery died early on so I don't have many pictures to share. The rides seemed EXTRA fun to ride because there were little kids who had either never been tall enough to ride before... or who had never dared ride before! So fun. I was so proud of Brinlee for riding the rides that she did!

My favorite ride was the teacups with the twinners. Tyler thought I should take the twins because I don't like spinning on the teacups and he assumed they would want a mellow ride as well. WELL... that wasn't entirely true. The moment the ride started their little hands were trying so hard to spin that wheel to make the teacup spin but even Haiden's brute strength couldn't get it moving. So I stepped in and even I couldn't get it going. I was sore the next day from trying! How sad is that?! Small world was another favorite. I never realized how cute it was! Tyler got to ride Mr. Toad's wild ride which until this trip he didn't believe me that it existed!

We were able to eat our triple threat which was... CHURRO... DOLE WHIP... CARMELED APPLE. Delicious. We always get those when we go to Disney and it was definitely worth the calories!

Sadly, the day had to come to an end. We watched the parade, bought souvenirs and left the park.

It was sad to leave but unfortunately the trip had to end. On the last day another pool party ensued in the pool. This time we blew up the floaties we brought and had relay races in the pool. Bryton and Hadley went swimming in the cold pool and Haiden once again didn't leave the beloved first step of the hot tub. Maybe he'll be adventurous like his sister someday!

The rest of the day was spent at the mall... where I did some more shopping damage! Luckily I had room in my carry on bag to take home all my purchases. We made our way to the Long Beach airport and made the trip home. OH this trip was so much fun. I want to go back right now! Thanks so much to Steve and Joyce for all the super fun memories! Can't wait for the next Denning Fam Reunion!

WEDDING PICTURES! AH!

2009-09-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

SO... I was totally in California with the Denning's when our wedding pictures got posted! AHHHH! I la la LOVE THEM. I still haven't looked through all the images.. There are just so many! I had the BEST photographer. Seriously. Moments By Kellee is just the best! If you haven't checked out her blog, you better do so. She already wants to be an honorary member of the fam :)

Enjoy the photos! And let her know what you think!

BEST. HNNE-MOON. EVER!

2009-09-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

OH.MY.GOSH. I am so not exaggerating. We went on the best honeymoon ever! To be perfectly honest, words just cannot do it justice! But there ARE a lot of words so don't read it if you don't want to. Not only was it simply the COOLEST feeling ever to finally be married FOR-EV-VER, but our first vacation was a total BLAST. We started out at the Hilton in SLC where we got all sorts of perks. Free bottled water at check in (which we needed because we didn't get there until 1 AM!) and free vouchers to pretty much the best breakfast buffet I have ever eaten. This can all be explained with one word= WAFFLES. We took our free shuttle to the airport where they dropped us off with all the other honeymooners. We had a hoot of a time watching all the newlyweds. They all looked like they were going to throw up or pass out. They wouldn't even look at each other. We laughed so hard that my side hurt.

When we finally arrived in Florida I thought I was going to melt. It is so stinkin hot and humid there. We were picked up by our driver, Otillio, and we were off to our resort. Otillio is from Puerto Rico and was super nice. He let us have a free grocery stop so we could pick up a few things. Unfortunately, he didn't really know where our resort was... so he handed Tyler his GPS and asked Tyler to type in our resorts address. And unfortunately for us, it was all in Spanish. We giggled as we drove around Orlando trying to figure out this GPS. At least now I know that "Atras" means BACK and not ENTER. It took us 10 minutes before we finally had the nerve to tell him we don't speak Spanish. Oh and we laughed and laughed until our sides hurt again.

Our Resort was INCREDIBLE. So incredible that I didn't even step foot in the other bathroom we had, nor the spare bedroom. We had swans made out of towels, a full kitchen, living room, jacuzzi tub, huge bathroom, huge master bedroom, a great view of the pool, free shuttle to Disney, free breakfast buffet and sooooo much more. I want to live there.

We made a California Pizza Kitchen pizza when we got in and peanut butter cookies. We went swimming and hot tubbing in our amazing pool and ate popcorn. It was the best night ever!

The next day we woke up late and caught the tail end of our breakfast buffet. We caught the shuttle (which will provide many stories for our future children) and headed off to EPCOT. Oh how I LOVE Disney. We wore "just married" buttons and everyone congratulated us. We always got the front of the ride or the back of the ride because of our pins. Tyler even enjoyed it. We rode all the rides and walked the world showcase. We ate in France- which was DELICIOUS. Cheesy croissants and baguettes, all for 5 bucks! We are very thrifty. I will NEVER eat in Morocco ever again. Not after the deliciousness of FRANCE.Note to all future Diser's: you can get free ice water at any of the counter service restaurants. Do not buy bottled water. We rode the Monorail to Magic Kingdom and had a grand old time riding Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Pirates and Buzz. We were pooped though and thought it be best if we went home and relaxed. So we did!
The next day at Animal Kingdom was seriously the hottest I have ever felt in my life. It was probably 95 degrees not including humidity. So it felt like it was 140 degrees. I lost my voice on expedition Everest from screaming so much. That yeti is terrifying! I also screamed my heart out on "DINOSAUR". That ride gave me nightmares. On the other hand, I have never seen Tyler laugh so hard :). We were absolutely soaked BEFORE we even made it onto Kali River Rapids. Ironically, we didn't even get too wet on that ride! Not fair! Cooling off was just not an option that day. You can just tell in the picture how humid it is! ;)

Despite sweating to death, Animal Kingdom was really fun! We watched Nemo, Lion King and even went on a Safari! It is the hottest park for some reason- I think because of all the animals, so plan on sweating through your clothes if ya go! We had to get out of the heat so we headed over to Hollywood Studios (my favorite park) and watched Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, Muppet vision, American Idol, Prince Caspian (Thanks to Tyler) and rode Tower of Terror (which is my favorite ride). We decided to leave early and go swimming at our pool because it was so hot. This is when the DRAMZ went down on our shuttle! So apparently, everyone and their Mama wanted to leave the parks so there was a HUGE line for our shuttle. Tyler and I weren't worried because there's only 2 of us and we don't mind standing or sharing a seat so we're just kind of observing the social environment around us. When the shuttle shows up, there is literally a stampede trying to trample us. Again, we burst into laughter (laughing was sort of the theme of the trip). At the front of the line there is a cat fight. It wasn't just a cat fight. It was THE cat fight to end all cat fights. "Don't you dare push my baby!" "We were here first!" "It don't matter!" "Oh no you didn't!" There were some racial slurs and lots of yelling a screaming. I will never forget it! I grabbed on to Tyler and made him swear that we wouldn't get involved in the fight. SO we kept our mouths shut and laughed about it on the way home. Needless to say our pool felt really good that night! Oh the dramz!

We needed that relaxing swim night because the next day we woke up bright and early and made our way to Hollywood studios where we rode Tower of Terror 3 times and Rockin Rollercoaster 3 times. Let me tell ya, Rockin Rollercoaster is heaven. Which may seem odd; it being a rollercoaster and all. But there is just something about it that just gets to your laughing place. It was Tyler's favorite ride we went on and he REALLY wanted to buy a Steven Tyler wig but I made him refrain! We did everything we wanted to do including Toy Story Mania- where Tyler schooled me in shooting toys. We left Hollywood studios and went back to Magic Kingdom. We practically walked on to Buzz Light year because frankly we're too cool for the parade. Although, Tyler and I did dance together in the street during the parade, so maybe we're not too cool after all. It didn't rain the whole time at Disneyworld UNTIL we rode Splash Mountain. So go figure. They were threatening to close the park early due to weather conditions so we ate our dole whips in the rain and our carmeled apples and we got out of there! Luckily, we had already conquered everything in all the parks so I didn't feel bad about leaving. Pshh... All those people on the Disboards who said I couldn't do Disneyworld in 3 days... I proved them all wrong!!! Mwahahah that feels good. I feel like a Disney Pro.

We got back to the Hotel and went swimming and watched the coolest lightning storm I have ever seen. I just loved it. I've decided that all you need on your honeymoon is a super fun pool. We could have spent all day at our pool. Which we did the next day!

Tyler woke up super early and made omelettes. Seriously. He made breakfast. I didn't know that Tyler was such a talented chef... but he is really good! We ate our breakfast out on our balcony and then spent the whole day at the pool.

When it was time to get picked up by the rental car agency, I was burnt to a crisp. Our day was not ruined though because they gave us a free rental car upgrade! We had a super cute Equinox simply because we were honeymooners! TOTALLY SWEET!

The drive to Clearwater was the best. I can't even describe how cool it was. It was neat yet terrifying at the same time. It made us realize that if there was a hurricane we'd be trapped.

They had evacuation routes all mapped out and everything but you still had to go over all these floating bridges and oh man, lets just say that a worry wart like me could never live down there.

We stayed at the Hilton right on the beach. We were immediately upgraded to the "honeymoon room" on the top floor. I still haven't decided if it was because they liked us or because they simply just didn't have our room ready yet. Regardless, it was super cool!

I absolutely love Clearwater Beach. I love the Gulf of Mexico. I love the sunsets we saw. And the restaurants we ate at. I love it all. The first night we got in we watched an amazing sunset on the beach. And I mean A-MAZ-ING. We went hot tubbing and ate dinner. Clearwater Beach has everything you need (besides a proper evac. route!). For instance, there was a freaking Target for crying out loud AND a Panera Bread. What? Seriously? Yes. That town is perfect.

We woke up to a torrential down pour. We were seriously almost in the middle of a tropical storm. In fact, the day after we left, southern Florida got hit with Tropical storm A and B. So that's how close we were to actually being in a tropical storm. Scary huh?

Well that morning we took it easy. We ate our free breakfast buffet and enjoyed the lightning. They CLOSED the beach and the pool due to the fact that it was so stormy. So we went on a drive down the coast and looked at all the foreclosed mansions on the beach. It was awesome. I think we only saw one house that wasn't for sale or bank owned.

We ate at Panera bread and went shopping. We bought a boogie board at the local surf shop and shopped the rest of the boardwalk. We played with hermit crabs and browsed through the Ed Hardy store.

Then we hit the BEACH. Duh.

Like we'd let the lightning stop us.

We decided to ignore the lightning and make use of the boogie board we bought. The waves were gnarly due to the storm. All the locals left the beach because it was apparently FREEZING (90 degrees didn't seem to cold to me). So we pretty much had the whole Gulf of Mexico to ourselves.

It was perfect.

That is until Tyler coerced me to swim out further than I felt comfortable doing. I did it anyway because I'm his wife now and I wanted to make him happy. I could barely touch the ocean floor and when a big wave came, I definitely couldn't. Well we're just sitting there floating on our floaties. Tyler was facing the beach making sure our stuff didn't get stolen and I was facing the horizon. All of the sudden I see a fin pop out of the water. A BLACK fin. A BIG GIANT FIN. Heading right towards us. I guess I started speaking in tongues in some weird language because to me I was making sense... I screamed "SHARK HURRY SWIM SPLASH!" But apparently all Tyler heard was "SKDHIEGHJSDGHEUT SPLASH!" So I start swimming away all while screaming shark at the top of my lungs. Finally Tyler made out the word "Shark" and decided it would be best if he stopped lolly gagging and actually MOVED. Well it was too late. He turned around and the most FEROCIOUS and Fearsome shark looking dolphin came up and ate him. And so I had to pull a Baywatch and rescue him. Well not really. But he did turn around and noticed that a cute little dolphin was swimming next to him. And I probably hurt the poor dolphins feelings by calling it a shark. But I swear it looked scarier than a dolphin. So yeah, that is the story of the dolphin shark. Most people pay hundreds of dollars to swim with dolphins. And when I finally see a dolphin, I scream and swim away. Tyler got to swim with a dolphin for free though. I don't think that is on my to-do list any time soon. I am terrified of sea life now.

So after that adventure, we stayed on the beach and watched another fantastic sunset. If you look hard enough you can see our dolphin-shark out there.

Sike.

Afterwards, we had our entire pool to ourselves. We swam and hot tubbed the night away. Until we realized we were starving from all the dolphin shark-madness. We got all dolled up and hit the town. We decided to eat at this place called Cooters. Yeah... I ate at a place called Cooters on my honeymoon! I had the most delicious piece of salmon though. MMMMM. Seafood. I can only eat seafood on the occasion because Tyler hates it. So I have to enjoy it while I can. We took our dessert to go. Of course we had Key Lime pie. You HAVE to get Key Lime pie when you're in Florida. It was divine!

The next morning I was in Honeymoon withdrawls- and we were still on our honeymoon! I just did NOT want to leave. At all. We ate our breakfast buffet and lolly gagged and watched the waves come in.

We had to get our rental car back so we left Clearwater. On our way back we stopped at CICI'S 5 $ pizza buffet again! Consequently, I ate way too many cinnomen rolls again. I have a problem. And it is those cinnomen rolls. I can eat like 1 piece of pizza and then once I have 1 cinnomen roll- I ONLY eat cinnomen rolls. They're addicting.

Ahhhh Cici's. WHY do you have to torture us with your deliciousness? In order to feed our addiction, we looked up any town that has a Cici's. We discovered that San Diego just opened one so we have high hopes that maybe we can eat there when we go on the Denning Family Disney-Palooza trip TOMORROW. Keep your fingers crossed!

Honestly though, who in their right mind would ever leave this glorious place. I want to go back!

And then we were at the airport. I didn't take any pictures at the airport. Because it was not fun. We bought books and hung out since we were 4 hours EARLY for our flight. I have never been to the airport 4 hours early. On the flight home we watched Star Trek. The movie. And it was a very fast flight. Like I said, our Honeymoon was absolutely perfect until we got into SLC. Despite being at the Orlando Airport 4 HOURS EARLY, they still managed to lose our bag. Seriously. So that was a fun first day of real life marriage when we got back with out anything. We decided to eat at Cheesecake Factory in Murray and make the most of it. Fortunately, we got our bag back the next day along with a 100$ voucher for free stuff! Wahoo!

All in all. I would not have traded it for the world. I LOVED our honeymoon! And I want to go back so bad. I am so glad we made the most of it because you only get ONE honeymoon. You go on many vacations and trips as a married couple but you only get ONE honeymoon and I LOVED ours. Thanks to everyone for helping us out and making it the Hnne-Moon EVER!

Credits:
Steve (Tyler's Dad) for letting us use his Hilton Honors points and for getting us all those great breakfast buffets in our hotels!

My little cousin Courtney for the "Happy Hnnemoon" card which supplied countless "Hnne-moon" and "grat" jokes to remind us that we should never "separat".

The Disboards. Without those guys, I would never have been motivated to conquer the WORLD in 3 days.

Our fam's for all letting us call them at all hours of the morning/night because we kept forgetting we were 2-3 hours ahead of them.

Thanks guys!

The day has come...

2009-09-16T11:29:00.001-07:00

The newest Denning's (griswalds) have the internet! This means Leslie will be posting more. I know she has a few posts lined up. So stay tuned!

Mawage is What Bwings us Together!

2009-09-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

Uh... So we're totally married. MARRIED. Can you believe it?! It is super fun! More posts to come later!

Its like Rain... on Your Wedding Day...

2009-08-07T07:46:00.000-07:00

OKAY! GUYS! I am getting married tomorrow! AHHHHHHHHHHH! Construction and rain and all. You can't stop me! Mother nature- I DARE you to throw a tornado at me and see what happens. I am still going to get married anyways so you might as well save your energy. :)

A few SUPER fun things have happened! First of all, we got featured on UTAH BRIDE! Go check us out on the blog. It is so much fun to see all pictures :)

Second of all, a lot of people have been wondering about my dress because they love it so much. SO.. I want to give a SHOUT OUT to Melinda with Avonlea Bridal for helping me find the perfect dress. She just recently moved to downtown Logan and I just love her shop. And I love my dress!

Lastly, we got our picture in the paper. We got the coveted FIRST spot in the paper. Which was really cool! This link won't last long so hurry up while you can and look at it!

Thanks everyone. I am SOOOOOOO excited and just ready to be married. And if you're coming to the wedding tomorrow, don't forget your hard hats and umbrellas! Love you guys!

I'm an AUNT!

2009-07-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

BOOM. BOOM.

FIREPOWER!

So I'm officially an Aunt! Isn't he just so cuuuuuute? I just love him to pieces! He is my very first Nephew and his name is Parley Jacob. He is precious. I love how he is already so smart and so tricksy. He does this special trick where he will fake sleep so no one will bother him. I must bug him the most because he is ALWAYS fake sleeping when I hold him, but the second I give him back to someone else he wakes up! But I still love that Parley boy.
P.S. Can you guys believe that in a little over a week I will be acquiring 14 MORE nieces and nephews? WOWEE! I'm getting married!

Bridals + Tyler

2009-07-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

Curious?

GO check out MBK to look at our formals/groomals/Bridals+Tyler! AHHHHH! Leave her a comment and let her know if you like what you see!

Bear Lago

2009-06-29T21:31:00.001-07:00

I just love Bear Lake. Last summer we went 3 times in less than a week. I have wonderful memories at Bear Lake. I've fallen off the "molecule" and skidded across the freezing water. I mastered the 360 on the knee board. I've had BBQ's at cabins. I have floated on floaties, built sand castles, dug holes and devoured raspberry shakes. Some of my most FAVORITE days EVER were spent at Bear Lake. And I can now chalk up this day at Bear Lake one of my very favorites as well.
I received a surprising text from Tyler while I was at work on Saturday morning. "Let's go to Bear Lake and get shakes". How could I say no to that request? I love his spontaneous fun ideas. That's why I'm marrying him! I took the wonderful idea to the next level and we packed our swimsuits, towels, lawn chairs, floaties, Frisbees and a football. We brought up my Aunt Sue's new quick shade as well. We got Grist Mill for the road and headed up the canyon.

I'm not even going to lie... it was the BEST. DAY. EVER. It was a day spent reading books (for Tyler's grad school program), looking through magazines (people and UTAH bride), and floating away on our floaties. It was hotter than H.E. Double Hockey Sticks. But we seemingly had the beach all to ourselves. There were hardly any water crafts out on the lake either. Bizarre for a Saturday. It was just so relaxing.
To close out the day we picked up a raspberry shake. Fortunately for me, you can't see how sun burnt I am in the pictures. Anyway, I just wanted to share my love of Bear Lake. I am looking forward to more trips up there this summer!
"you're just jealous cause we're young and in love"

Lagoon!

2009-06-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

We have been up to A LOT lately. My dear friend Kelsi Boston invited Tyler and I to join her for her work's lagoon day (for FREE!). So how can I pass up a day at Lagoon with the Boston's?! It was seriously a blast. It didn't just rain. It POURED. We got free admission, free BBQ and free BINGO! Between Tyler and I we won 30 bucks at Bingo.
I am really thinking I should have given Kelsi the 5 bucks I "won" since I didn't even have the gonads to go up and claim my prize. Tyler and Daren won twice. AJ won too! And so I'm pretty sure Erica will never play Bingo again! I discovered that Bingo is not my thing. It stresses me out too much.
Mark and Cassie showed up and helped us chow down on our free BBQ.
We stocked up on Kraft singles and packets of condiments (Kelsi) and had a great dinner! It was so much fun. Gotta love those Boston siblings.
After all the Harris Research hoopla, the Boston's left. And then it REALLY started to pour. And that's when we had the bright idea to ride the rides. It seriously looked like I had jumped into a swimming pool. I was completely drenched. I am really hoping I didn't ruin my giraffe sweater. Despite the down pour, it was THE MOST fun I have ever had at Lagoon. Funny how the most memorable Lagoon trips always happen when it rains.

Because when two people love eachother, they jump in puddles!

Don't feel bad for us though, we bounced back this week and hit Lagoon when it was 90 degrees! We spent most of our time at Lagoon-A-Beach.
We also ate at my most favorite restaurant ever... RED ROBIN. Delicious! I just love my life! And yes, I'm totally rocking my MOMENTS BY KELLEE "Bride" t-shirt at Lagoon. Thanks Kellee!

ENGAGEMENTS!

2009-06-22T11:27:00.001-07:00

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! That's really all I can say. Go check out our engagement pictures @ Momentsbykellee.com/blog

Isn't she just the greatest?! Leave her a comment and let her know if you like what you see!

WELCOME

2009-06-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new blog! Feel free to browse, comment and blog stalk away. More posts coming soon...

Moments BY Kellee Photography

2009-06-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

A lot of you have been asking how the wedding plans have been going. So I am going to tell you! Yesterday we had our engagements done with Moments By Kellee. Oh my heck. She is amazing! If you haven't already, check out her blog at Momentsbykellee.com/blog. You will be HOOKED. She really is the best photographer and I feel so fortunate to have her take our wedding pictures! EEEEK! You guys, she really is THAT good. Words just can't do her justice.

Anyway, we pulled an "All Dayer" session and went EVERYWHERE. So many locations. So many outfit changes. It was like a dream come true! I can't wait for you to see all the pictures. I can only hope I can look half as beautiful as the people she usually takes pictures of. If I can accomplish that, then I will be pleased. She showed us some of the pics she took as they were on her camera, and let me tell ya, Tyler looked like a fox. Gol, I am just so excited! So check her blog around Mondayish... That's when they'll probably be up on her blog. Until then, here are some photos. Her work just speaks for itself. A-MAZ-ING!

See what I mean?! :)

Can I Get a Boo-Yeah?!

2009-05-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

Tyler graduated earlier this month. He is so smart and was DECKED out with all sorts of smart people gear. He had a large turn out of support from his family and even my family.

Despite the torrential downpour, we still managed to show our support for Tyler and snapped a lot of pictures!

Tyler graduated Summa Cum Laude (something smart people do) and was also invited to be a member of Beta Gamma Sigma (which is also something smart people do). The benefits of being a member of Beta Gamma Sigma are awesome. It is an elite club for smart people. In fact, there was only one other member of Beta Gamma Sigma wearing their stuff at graduation. So way to go Ty! We get discounts on our rental car for our honeymoon and also on our hotel rooms and lots of other things. So it pays off in the end to be marrying a smart person!

I felt like such a pageant mom the day of Graduation.. But I was so proud! Sometimes I felt like I was more excited for him than he was! Even though he is starting Grad school in the fall, it is still such an accomplishment to earn a Bachelors Degree. And in one short year, he will be DONE with school (unless he gets his P.H.D. and decides he wants to go as Dr. W. Tyler. A Denning). Don't ask me why the "W" got thrown in his name- I'm just making fun of one of his professors.

Anyways, Congrats Tyler! You now get the privilege of saying "BOO YEAH!"

Look Out World... Here We Come!

2009-05-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well the Honeymoon is booked! We'll be spending one fabulous week in Florida. Some of you may gawk and laugh and say, "What? Are you guys like 12 years old?!"... Well, we sorta are I guess because WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!

Tyler once told me he wanted to see the world with me, well we are getting a good start by heading to Walt Disney World. :) The only reason Tyler agreed upon this as our honeymoon was because he found out there is a Cici's Pizza buffet on pretty much every block in Florida. So he will pretty much be in heaven. Take a guess at where we'll be eating every night!!!

We'll be spending half the week with THESE guys in WDW...

We are staying at the most fabulous resort ever... The World Quest Resort. We basically have our own condo with a fully equipped kitchen, living room, dining room, private jacuzzi, FREE continental breakfast (my favorite part) and a free shuttle to the parks. The pool is MAJOR. I love it. The pool chairs look divine and I am so excited to read my tabloids and relax by the pool.

Isn't my Tyler just way too good to me?

Now if that isn't enough for you, we are spending the last half of the week at the Clearwater Beach Hilton. Now this is a CHOICE resort. I am going to feel like royalty on this trip. We are right on the ocean and I cannot WAIT to sink my feet into that white sand and look for seashells and basically watch the sun go down over the gulf of Mexico.

I am spoiled, I know. I just thought I would make us all jealous and post this. I must give Steve some props for helping us out. What a trip! I can't wait!

And it sure beats getting the SWINE FLU down in Cancun now doesn't it ;)

CONGRATS TYLER!!!

2009-05-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

WAHOOOOO!!!!

Tyler GRADUATES tomorrow! My Dad sent these to us in an email and I honestly could not stop laughing. So I thought I would share them with the blog world.

We are all proud of you Ty! Happy Graduation tomorrow!

When the Browns Come in Town...

2009-04-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

The Party Never Stops!

My goodness... See what a whirlwind my Family causes when they are in town? I am still recovering- thus the reason why I haven't blogged in forever (until this week).

We got so much done when they were in town. We got my wedding dress, found the linens & decor, decided were we were going to have the reception (grandparents awesome backyard), and pretty much picked out our invitations. Oh and mine and Tyler's parents got to meet each other too! So it was a pretty productive week as far as wedding planning goes. Here is a sample of the centerpiece we practiced putting together using granny smith apples! (don't worry.. we won't use that plate!)

Despite all the wedding planning, we managed to have some real FUN as well. Rainy day BBQ's, trips to juniper and Cafe Sabor, hanging out at Tummi Yummi's all night, shopping in SLC and hide and seek at Grandma's house all contributed to the fun times.

I'm excited for the next big family fun vacation in Logan... August... Cause Ty and I are getting MARRIED. Be there or be square!!!

P.s. For those of you who can't hold your horses... Here is a SNEAK PEAK of the dress..

Oh and I can't let a post go by with out sneaking in a picture of my precious! Until next time!!!...

Tyler's Birthday!

2009-04-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

Hooray!!! We celebrated Ty's Birthday this month! He hit the big Two-Three mark and we partied in style. We went out to Cafe Sabor and then went and got us the free Birthday treat from Caspers. If you haven't done this yet for you birthday, DO IT. You will not be disappointed. It was pretty much the best sundae I have ever had.
He was like a little kid as I made him STOP and WAIT before he ate it so I could take a picture. That is not a happy face.
Mmm Delicious. I am pretty sure I am consuming calories just by looking at that picture... Brain calories.

Fortunately for me, there was not a LAME-O in sight to spoil his birthday surprise this year... so he opened his presents and was ACTUALLY surprised to see what he received. I gave him Raving Rabids 2 and needless to say we played the rest of the night. I also gave him some Wii remote/controller thingy's and some guitar books. Rabids is the best video game ever (not counting Peggle) and I love playing it with him because he lets me win some of the time. So if you want to have a HOOT of a good time, come hang out with us.

Anway, I don't want to get all mushy and talk about how my soon to be husband is like the "BEST SOON TO BE HUSBAND EVER"... but I will say how I am so glad I snatched this Tyler up. He is such a great guy and such a fox and is even GRADUATING this week. See... what a catch.

Thanks for having a fun Birthday Ty. Tax Day would just not be the same without some sort of reason to celebrate. Happy Be-lated B-Day toots!

General Conference

2009-04-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Tyler and I had the opportunity to attend General Conference. It was so neat to be able to be there with him for the Sunday afternoon session. We walked around temple square and mingled with the other conference goers. Tyler had never even been to the Conference Center before so it was really great to be able to give him a mini tour around the huge facility.

I love Conference. Some of you may gawk at me for attending, seeing as I can watch a session from the comfort of my home... but there is just something about being THERE. It makes you really listen. At the session we went to, they talked about Temples a lot- about preparing to enter the Temple and doing Temple work and about never losing sight of the Temple. The Logan Temple (where we are getting married) even got a huge shout out. So it was very apparent that we were meant to attend that session.

It is crazy to think that next time Conference rolls around, I will be a married woman! I am so excited!

I got THE dress!!!

2009-04-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

So I officially got my wedding dress!!! Which means now we have to get married ;)

It is such a relief to have it because now everything else is falling in to place. It is perfect! The dress needs no alterations. It laces up the back. Yay! I am just way too excited!

While trying on dresses at all our different boutiques, I couldn't get the one episode of friends out of my head where they try on all the wedding dresses. My sisters and I have a long standing joke about how we are all going to wear our wedding dresses and have tea parties together. So here it is... anyone else who wants to get in on future tea parties, just let me know!

By the way, the dress is from Avonlea Bridal. I highly recommend going there FIRST if you are trying dresses on. The atmosphere is the best. You have your own little pedestal and dressing room area so it can be an intimate experience with whoever you want to go with. So you don't have to walk out into a large audience of people you don't know. It is the ONLY dress shop that I've seen that didn't feel messy and crowded. And the dresses are top notch. I am going back there to snatch up my temple dress. And my veil... and my jewelry.

Anyway, stay tuned for more posts. My fam was in town this past week so I have a lot to share with the blogoshere!

EAT.DUH.HEAD.

2009-03-31T17:46:00.000-07:00

Ty took me to a Jazz game last week and it was a DOOOOZY! We both share a loathe for Yao Ming, so it was a must that we attend the Houston Rocket's game. Clarification: Yao Ming is not a bad guy, I just dislike the way he plays basketball.

Despite the blizzard and the crowds and the lateness that took place upon leaving Logan, it was a pretty smooth date. We stopped by the Gateway to purchase our new Jazz Jerseys. And after much deliberation I decided to get a AK jersey and Tyler managed to snag one of the last D-Will jerseys in the store.

I took up my little brother on advice as to which jersey to buy. The conversation went a little something like this...

Me: Hi brother, I need your help. If you had the choice between buying an Andre Kirilenko jersey and a Deron Williams jersey, which would you choose?

Tony: Do you want to be weird?

Me: Huh?

Tony: Do you want to be weird?! If you want to be mainstream, go with the D-Will jersey because he is really popular right now even outside of Utah. BUT... if you want to be weird and little funky, go with the Kirilenko jersey.

Me: Well what would you do?

Tony: I'd buy Kirilenko... because he looks like me.

Me: SOLD.
Gotta love my brother. He is funny! And way cuter than AK (no offense Andre.. but you do look a little weird.)

ANYWAY... the Jazz won! It was a great game. We kept the Denning tradition alive and ate/parked at crown burger. Our noses didn't even bleed from being up so high either! Every time Yao Ming got the ball we screamed EAT DUH HEAD! Which if you don't know what that is referring to you must be living under a rock but here you go for your enjoyment anyway...

GO JAZZ!

The Triplets. (and Tyler)

2009-03-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

I love these guys. They're my little buddies. One thing that I love about Tyler is what a good Uncle he is. His nieces and nephews ADORE him... which is good for me because then they like me through association!
Every time I see Bryton he automatically says "Wanna play hide and seek?" Apparently he knows me as the girl who plays hide and seek.

Every time I see Haiden he tries to sit on me or at least next to me.

And every time I see Hadley she just screams the highest pitched scream you can imagine and then laughs.

They are all so cute and have their own personalities. On this particular day, they were riding on Tyler's back and then he'd lean over and dump them on the couch. It never got old! And it was way cute to watch.

Wedding Stuff...

2009-03-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the Wedding Showcase. And duh, I went. I even managed to coerce Tyler into going. It was way too much fun! Tyler received a free massage from Brio and I had my hair, nails and makeup done! I ran into some past friends (who would have thought the super cute makeup artist from Serendipity was my past co-worker/friend from Dillard's!?) and made some new ones (I heart Ella Bella Floral).

They were giving away a free wedding and although we didn't win, it was still a blast to attend. My favorite part of the day though had to be talking to all the different vendors. They complimented us on how HAPPY we are together and I swear I have never heard so many compliments on a single piece of jewelry in my LIFE. I LOVE this kind of stuff. The Wedding Showcase is like MY Superbowl.

Things I learned at this Showcase:

My hair will have to be down or half up for the wedding day. I realized I cannot stand having that many bobbi pins in my hair for a long period of time. The cute stylist from Serendipity tried out a side bun for my wedding day updo... and my head just was not liking it. The side bun is just not my cup of tea. But it's a good thing we tried it out beforehand!

I am NOT allergic to Bare Minerals makeup. It used to make me breakout like crazy and now I love it. I am so going to have to buy some.

I can't wear a bird cage veil because Tyler hates them and thinks they look like lunch lady hair nets*. :(
*On ME! He doesn't like it on me. No offense to those who wore bird cage veils. I am in love with the FUNKY BOOTH! What a neat idea. Why didn't I think of that?! If you don't know what the funky booth is, check out their blog. I so want them. You know you want me to have them too. And I won a bouquet from Ella Bella Floral! You will have to check out their blog... They're the cutest mother/daughter team and they put the most beautiful arrangements together. I am also digging the "lounge" idea. Smokin'! I really think that needs to be at my wedding. All in favor!?

I also love MBK. She's officially our photographer! (But we already knew this before the showcase!) I actually booked her before we were even engaged. Don't tell Tyler. She is just amazing. This is her booth. SOMEDAY, maybe our picture will be on display...

Overall, I had a grand ol' time at the wedding showcase... I am already craving another one. I'm pretty sure I'm coming back to things over and over and over even after I'm married. :)

Credits:

Wedding Showcase Blog

Funky Booth

Moments BY Kellee

Ella Bella Floral

Oh and P.S. Just because I can... Here's another ring shot. I just love my precious. And yeah those are Gummy Bears. Because I'm ridiculous like that.

Spring Break?

2009-03-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

I have this theory.

This year, Spring Break had an identity crisis and wanted to be Winter break. I have come to the conclusion that daylight savings has time warped us all back into the month of December.

Exhibit A: Heaping amounts of fresh powder. Two feet of it actually.

We went sledding with Landon and Kole Monday night. It was intense! Those kids are hardcore let me tell ya.

Exhibit B: Aggie B-ball games. And they have actually been winning... in March, during crunch time! It's amazing. (Knock on wood- please bless I didn't just jinx them!)

Exhibit C: Trips to the Beav. Twice in one week! Two beautiful days full of wonderful powdery goodness and sunshine.

And last but not least, cosmic bowling! Tyler, I won't go into details about who won and what not.. yada yada yada... but I TOTALLY kicked your butt. Maybe you should buy ME some bowling shoes ;)

We also went and saw the movie "Taken" which I highly recommend even to the crazies like me who are used to screaming at the movie screen. There were countless trips to get frozen yogurt and many other fun events. All these activities we did this week reminded me of cold wintery nights in December. But it was March! MARCH.. Wha?

Hey- I'm glad you finally got your act together Spring Break and realized that you are INDEED Spring Break and not Winter Break... Thanks for letting me wear flip flops yesterday and for being sunny with a high of 60. Now that's the Spring we know and love.

Friday the 13th!

2009-03-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

I am exceptionally superstitious. I am constantly knocking on wood after I say things. I scream every time a black cat crosses my path. I have lifted my feet over railroad tracks (even if I am the driver) since I was 10. It is a subconscious thing.

However, Friday the 13th does not wreak the same havoc on my superstitious mind as it once used to. Friday the 13th is considered more of my LUCKY day.

I got ENGAGED a month ago today. How cool is that?! I know most people don't celebrate their engagement anniversary. Tyler and I thought it would be neat if we celebrated every Friday the 13th rather than a regular old monthly anniversary. So tonight, we will celebrate. I just love Friday the 13th!

It's a Great Day to be Alive

2009-03-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

Or technically yesterday was...

We skipped school, work, and other weekly activities and voyaged up to Beaver Mountain yesterday. And it was SO worth it.

As I made figure 8's in the fresh powder while following my dashing fiance, with the sunshine on my face, I thought to myself... It just does NOT get any better than this. In that moment, I was truly happy. I just can't believe how lucky I am.

Mark and Jason came up with us as well, along with Tyler's nephews Bracken and Landon. A move which scored Tyler the coveted Title of "Uncle of the Year".

It was way too fun. I am still recovering this morning from all the races, jumps and crashes. However, it is good to know that I can still keep up with the boys!

I Am Marrying a Smart Person!

2009-03-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

Can ya believe it? Sometimes I can't... We all know Tyler is very ambitious when it comes to his education. It only took him 3 years to earn his Bachelors Degree in finance and economics, a feat which normally takes four years... or in some cases even longer (ahem).

All that studying paid off!

Not only is he graduating in record time with nearly a 4.0 GPA, he has also been recently accepted into the full-time MBA program for this upcoming fall! What a smarty pants! So yes, I am marrying a smart person.

Since Tyler will be pursuing his MASTERS degree, I will be starting my P.H.T. degree this fall as well. :)

I am so excited! Way to go Ty! We are all very proud of you.

Be a Master, He must."- My little brother (said in a Yoda voice)

Wedding Colors. HELP!

2009-02-26T08:17:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all of your Congratulatory comments. I LOVE being engaged... people keep telling us (Ty and I) that being engaged totally agrees with us. Tyler has been told he is more relaxed and energized playing soccer and I have been told I am outwardly more happy and that I am just floating (whatever that means!).

They say that this blissful feeling goes away and that you start to get into planning mode and forget the joys of being engaged. Well, contrary to what they say, the feeling has not gone away yet and I have found that long(er) engagements have that advantage. I don't have to rush everything. I can enjoy this short time we have as being an engaged couple. :)

I do, however, have to start planning at SOME point. For those that know me, you know that I have been planning my wedding for years. I am a wedding PLANNER. Not officially, but in my own mind. While the rest of you are on itunes looking up new music or shopping online, I have been on wedding websites non stop probably since the day I learned how to use the internet (which was last year. sike jk).

The problem with being a frequent wedding planner (in my own mind) is that I know TOO MUCH. I know what's out there. It's true what they say. Ignorance really is bliss.

So, be careful what you wish for. You want to help on the wedding plans? So be it. You can start by helping me choose a color palette! My sister Lindsay is really good with colors so she has thrown out some ideas since I cannot make up my mind. There are too many cool things out there to just let myself pass them up. Maybe I should just have a rainbow wedding. Err.. never mind!

Dove Gray and Yellow
All my wedding trend forecasters know that THIS is the hot color combo for 2009. Move over Chocolate brown, Gray is the new black! I have to admit, I thought up this combo years ago and it is just now getting popular. Go figure. I do love it though!

Granny Apple Green and Pink
Thanks Linds for throwing these awesome colors in my face! Oh you green apple centerpieces won me over. I am absolutely hooked on these colors right now. They are just fun and SO August- I can hardly stand it. Picture green apple centerpieces in tall vases and carmeled apples to eat.. Oh. My. Heck. Too fun.

Tiffany Blue and Yellow
I used to be obsessed with tiffany blue. Obsessed! This combo has died down a bit for me in the past couple weeks but could make a tremendous comeback. Picture lemon centerpieces and silk tiffany linens. Just writing about it makes me like it more! Yikes!

Ok, that's all for now. I am really feeling the Dove Gray right now. I think that is my definite accent color with any of these color combos. Except can we call it something besides Dove Gray? Every time I say it I think of the dead dove from the bachelor. Maybe I'll just start calling it dead dove gray. Let me know if you like any of these colors! And if you are a future bride reading this... HI and congrats to you too!

Not quite the same...

2009-02-18T08:49:00.000-08:00

As you all know (cause most of you are family and were there...) I propose on Friday the 13th of February. It was a long road leading up to the proposal and lots of stress as well. Leslie wanted to post her side of the story and me to post mine. I'm not as good of a story teller, so here we go!

A few weeks back at work a kid asked me when I was going to pop the big question. I told him I was thinking of V-Day because Leslie likes holiday proposals. He was like "you know what would be funny, to do it the day BEFORE V-day." I thought it was funny as well and was sure Leslie would never expect it. Which was my key goal... to surprise her. So I started planning and discussing ideas with my family. We decided to go back to the roots of the t-shirts Tori made when I got home from my mission idea.

Initially I didn't realize that the 13th was going to be a Friday. Well around the 10th of February Leslie and I are hanging out watching some old episodes of the office and she mentions how superstitious she is. and I am thinking in my head "oh crap, I hope she doesn't hate me for doing it on the infamous "Friday the 13th". But she was okay with it in the end. So that was good.

A few other funny things leading up to the proposal date, Brooklyn (my 7 year old niece) goes up to Leslie one day and says (right infront of me) I know Tyler's secret. And Leslie says to her "he has a secret?" and looks at me. I told Les I had no idea what she is talking about and that she is crazy. Luckily Leslie didn't push Brooklyn to tell her anything and just dropped it. On a similar note the week before at the Superbowl, before Jill and Todd came up, Jill had to threaten Bay that if she said anything to Leslie she would kill her. Needless to say that Bay listened and is still alive and kicking.

So the proposal day
I took work off so that way I could get everything ready. So after school I had to go buy some ring pops and flowers (my mom insisted I NEEDED to give her flowers). So since Leslie isn't a fan of roses, I got her some pink and red carnations. I had bought these Hannah Montana V-Day cards that kids give out in elementary school to others in hopes they would be suitable to write on and have envelopes to put them in. Well the world has gone cheap and they don't give you envelopes anymore with those things... Just stickers so you fold them over and sticker them shut. That kinda bummed me out but luckily Tori, the creative person she is, said we shoudl just type stuff up and glue them on. So they were still savageable.

Tori came up after she got off work and we put the 3 notes that Leslie was going to find on her scavenger hunt together around 5ish. I then took the first one to her aunt Sue at the Michael's parking lot and told her to give it to her when I sent a text. (Thanks Sue for your help!)

All the while during the day Leslie has been texting me asking me about work and what I wanted to do tonight. So I am just lying to her like crazy saying "works good..." "we are having a little party with chips and cookies..." "work makes me so tired..." what not. As for the 'What do you want to do tonight?' question, I was digging deep in my head as to what to say. I knew what we were GOING to do, but trying to figure out what to tell her so she would think it was any other Friday night. I knew that she wanted to see that "he's just not that into you" movie for about 4 weeks now. So I suggested maybe go see that... or see if there are any movies in the Redbox or whatever. I think she was getting frustrated i wasn't coming up with anything.

After I get back with meeting up with Sue, Todd and Jill help me move everyone's cars to the church parking lot so Leslie wouldn't think anyone was at my house besides them. (Leslie knew they were going to be in town cause it was Jill's Grandma's birthday) So on the way out the door i realize there is like 40 shoes sitting in the front room. Those need to be hid. So while Todd and Jill help me move the cars and take the next note to Hamilton's, someone moved the shoes and coats. (Thank you mystery person.) On the way back, I realized I dropped the heart stickers that came in my Hannah Montana card box. So I needed to get home and get some tape to tape the 2nd note on the door at the Beaver Mountain Ski Shop office (by Fredricos for those that don't know where that is. NOT BEAVER MOUNTAIN ITSELF.)

Chad and Bracken were nice enough to sit and watch at the Ski shop knowing Leslie wouldn't recognize Chad's car to ensure she got the note. So i sent Leslie by texting Sue and the kids got their shirts on and headed down by the kitchen to get ready. With Leslie on her way, we practiced the kids saying "will you marry my uncle Tyler?" They were all goofing around and i was nervous how it would go. Tori told them if they were good they would get a treat. Which reminded me to get the Ring pops for them. So i grabbed those and said if they were good they would get to eat them. Well they weren't being very good, so we let them starting eating them to keep them quiet.

After Bracken told us Les got the first clue, they came over and we realized we didn't have someone sitting at Hamilton's to tell us when she got there. So I gave her some time, then called to see if she got it. She had just got it around 7:45ish and we were all freaking out getting ready to hide. I remember standing there staring at my parents holding the ring and saying "This feels like i am asking her to a dance, with just a little bit more weight behind it." My mom just laughed and said "yeah, a little more."

Todd told us she came, and he came back and hid, and everyone else killed the lights and i remember thinking "Please let these children be quiet for just 15 seconds so she can get from the front door to the kitchen without hearing them." That was my biggest worry is that one of the kids would make some noise, but they did great. We stood there for a while wondering what was taking her so long to get from her car to the door, later to find out she was looking for a clue on the door. She knocked, my dad answered and said that I was in the kitchen. She goes walking in and the kids just yell "WILL YOU MARRY MY UNCLE TYLER!!!??" I came out from behind her and knelt down. Her mouth was just open wide and she had her hands over her mouth. She didn't see me immediately, so I tugged on the side of her coat to get her to see me. I remember her saying "SHUT UP!!? Are you kidding me?" I just looked at the ring and said "No, will you marry me?" I stand up and she says "Yeah DUH!" and gave me a big hug. Tam then says "Les, if you wanna run, now would be the time!" Then all the kids go running off towards the kitchen screaming RUN!!!!!. It was pretty cute.

She just sat there and was teary eyed, staring at her ring and then at me iin disbelief it was real. Then Jill says "You can kiss him you know.." So Tori said, yeah kiss i'll get a picture with all the kids looking grossed out. Its a funny picture. Then out of nowhere Bryton comes running up to Leslie, i'm thinking he is going to hug her. But not, he winds up with his right foot and tries to kick her in the shin. Good thing he is 2 and doesn't really get the purpose of the moment. But it was still cute nonetheless.

Pretty much the rest of the night was spent with Leslie calling her family and visiting them. I heard a lot of them saying "FINALLY!" Kinda made me feel bad. But Leslie says it was perfect and that she had no idea what was going on. So i'm glad it worked out good because i was very nervous about so many little things. So yeah, That is my side of the story that I can think of.

Thank you to my family for all the help in cleaning the house, taking pictures, letting me use your time and your children, and being there to support me in this. I love you all so much. You are the best family ever! Thanks for saying Yes Leslie. I love you!

[Todd kept asking me over and over, "What happens if she says no?" I'm glad she didn't and I didn't have to worry about it, cause all I could think of was to tell her to leave.. Glad i didn't have to do that!]

*** For some pictures if you haven't seen them:

Tori's Blog Post - http://donswife.blogspot.com/2009/02/sooo-like.html
Leslie's Blog - http://leggybardot.blogspot.com/

***Sorry this is so long. I know Tori hates long posts. But it's mostly for my personal benefit to remember the day.

Put a Ring on it :)

2009-02-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

So... you guessed it... I'm engaged! Tyler proposed on Friday the 13th, which is now considered to be my lucky day! We are so excited and just couldn't be happier :) Here's the scoop...

I could have sworn it was going to happen on Valentines day. I had my outfit all picked out, I practiced what I was going to say, how I was going to react and how my hair was going to look. When you've dated as long as Tyler and I have, you begin to expect things on holidays. Every major holiday that has rolled around, I made sure to get extra cute. And it never happened. All he wanted to do was surprise me. And he succeeded in that endeavor. I was so bamboozled. I am still in shock! :)

I had a great day on Friday the 13th. I put together Ty's Valentines day gift, went to work, and got my nails done (in preparation for the Valentines day proposal I assumed was happening). It was just a good day. I was informed my Grandparents (who are on a mission in SLC) were going to come into town for a short visit for Valentines day. "I am SO getting engaged tomorrow," I said to myself. If my Grandparents were coming in town, it HAD to be for a special occasion. I just assumed they were in on the Valentines day engagement "surprise".

After I got my nails done, I just relaxed at home. I had been texting Tyler all day and he informed me we were going to go see a movie called "He's just Not that into You". He was pretty adamant about seeing that movie Friday night. Why? I do not know. I was sort of bugged that he wanted to take me to that movie so bad. Was he trying to tell me something?

I noticed that FIFTEEN minutes after I had just gotten my nails done, I had a chipped nail. My left hand ring finger to be exact. I was ticked. Since it was my lucky day, I conveniently had some white nail polish lying around and so I improvised and covered it up. There was NO way I was having a chipped ring finger when Tyler proposed on Valentines day!

Seconds after the nail polish debacle, my Aunt Sue came up the stairs and said "Is this yours? I found this down here." It was a folded up poster. I said it wasn't mine and I didn't know where it came from and I almost just shrugged it off. She INSISTED it was mine. So finally, I unfolded the poster.

It started off saying "Hey Valentine"... It was a cute little poem! I assumed this was totally for my Valentines day gift. Though, it didn't keep my heart from pounding out of my chest. He was going to give me my Valentines day gift TONIGHT (Friday the 13th) and it was going to be the precursor to the proposal on Valentines day. I assumed he was probably going to take me up snowboarding at Beaver Mountain, therefore, he wouldn't have time to give me my V-day gift that day because we'd be busy snowboarding... and he was either going to propose up at the mountain or wait until later that night. You see my warped sense of all this stuff? Man- I was soooo wrong. But like I mentioned before, I was convinced it was happening on Valentines day. I would have put money down that it was happening on Valentines day. Good thing I didn't! ;)

But WAIT! I had just painted the most important nail on my hand! I can't leave and mess up the paint! AHHHH what do I do? I frantically pulled out the blow dryer, put it on cool burst and dried the heck out of the nail. But it didn't work and I couldn't wait anymore for it to dry. So I compromised and said I would fix it tomorrow morning before we went up snowboarding. That way, I still had pretty hands when he proposed on VALENTINES DAY. ;)

Anyways, I ran off and got into my car and headed up to the Beaver Mountain ski shop. There was another note on the door and it sent me to Hamilton's! He was sending me to our favorite "places" around Logan. How cute. I still assumed this was for my V-day present though. I had to go ask the hostess for my note. She gave me these weird googly eyes like she was in on the surprise and the rest of the waiting area did a round full of "oooohs". It was straight out of a movie. The note told me to go to his house where I'd find my next poem. So I drove up to his house. All the while I am blasting Taylor Swift "Love Story" in my car. I am so not a country girl, but for some reason I love that song and know every single word to it. Go figure.

If you know the Denning's, they usually have up to 10 cars at their house at any given time. So as you can imagine my dismay when I pull up to Tyler's house and there are no cars out there, and the house is pitch black. I thought OK... I guess my clue is out on the front porch because obviously there's no one home. I doubted Tyler was even there. So I searched for my clue for a good couple minutes and couldn't find ANYTHING on the porch. So I knock, even though I felt dumb in case his Dad had no idea what I was talking about when I said I needed my next note!

Luckily, he knew... and informed me it was in the kitchen. Steve is a really good actor. So I walk into the house thinking I'm just going to grab my next clue when all of the sudden the dark turns to light and all of Tyler's nieces and nephews are sitting on the floor wearing the CUTEST shirts known to man kind, sporting ring pops and all yelling in unison "WILL YOU MARRY MY UNCLE TYLER?!" One of them even went the extra mile and yelled "PLEEEEEASE?"

I was in shock. My eyes welled up like fish bowls and I couldn't even process what was happening. I was so TRICKED! And so surprised! I didn't even notice that Tyler was down on one knee behind me with an important question to ask me. He had to pull on my coat to get me to turn around. When I finally turned around and he asked me to marry him, I was still in shock. Every stupid phrase that has ever come out of my mouth, came out at that moment. I had practiced what I was going to say and all of that went out of the window when I saw him. "SHUT UP"... "SERIOUSLY?"..."THIS ISN'T A JOKE?" Consumed my vocabulary. I threw out a few "OH my hecks" And "Holy Craps" to add to the lack of romantic vocabulary. My response to his question was "YEAH! DUH!" Can you believe I said "Duh"? So embarrassing.

I guess that's how you know it was a genuine surprise though. Some people may think that's not romantic, but I guess you just have to know me. I gave him a huge hug and I remember hearing Tami say "If you're going to run, now's the time!". I didn't run. But all of the kids did! My favorite had to be Tyler's sister in law Jill letting us know that we can kiss if we want to. I didn't even kiss him! What was I thinking!? We kissed and grossed all the kids out. They were really entertained with their ring pops though. :) Apparently, they were supposed to give me the ring pops... but Ty used them as an incentive to be quiet and it totally worked! Way to go ring pops!

They all gave me hugs and told me how excited they are to have another aunt. Kole even started calling me Aunt Leslie! Brinley and Brooklyn made me little coloring books containing priceless quotes like "Love bugs play in rugs"... and "Love is wacko." There is also a killer portrait of a bride and groom that is of Tyler and I. Lindsay thinks we should incorporate those into our reception somehow. So maybe we'll have all the little kids draw us coloring books!

It was just a perfect night. I can't put it in better words than that. I called my parents (who knew and somehow kept it a surprise from me). I was just on cloud nine all night and I couldn't believe it. I was so excited, surprised, ecstatic and thrilled all at the same time. I couldn't keep my hand still when people tried to take pictures of the ring. I am STILL to this day just in lala land.

At the end of the night, after all was said and done, Tyler looked at me and said, "You know what this means right? You're stuck with me for eternity..." A huge grin came over my face and I thought to myself.... Yeah FOREVER..... "DUH".

We are getting married August 8th, 2009 in the Logan LDS temple for time and eternity! Thanks to everyone for being so excited for us! We're just thrilled! EEEEEEE!!!!

For Tyler's point of view go HERE.

P.S. Tyler wants to join blogs now that we're engaged. But I don't know what to call our blog. SO feel free to shout out any names or ideas you may have! :)

"I talked to your Dad, go pick out a white dress.."

2009-02-17T12:01:00.000-08:00

I spy with my little eye.....

Something shiny!!!

*More details to come... I have just been waaay too excited to sleep, or blog!*

EEEEE!!! :)