Christmas Parties and Things of Note

We had some fancy holiday parties to attend this year. So we had to get all gussied up for the occasion. I like to get gussied. So does Tyler. See the photos below as proof. Tyler practised his GQ model poses.
He looked quite festive in his holiday red. As an updo was most appropriate, I taught myself how to do a french twist for the occasion. And bought myself some green holiday shoes.
These I love.
The low point of the season has been me losing my very favorite pair of gold leaf earrings. The ones I am wearing in the photos above. I retraced all my steps and even called Fred Meyer in hopes I had lost it there and someone had turned it in. No such luck. I prayed for a Christmas miracle and got none.

At least I still have my party shoes.
And my trip home to Utah. I cannot wait.

I especially cannot wait to play with this little nugget.

Merry Christmas!

Thankful

We are Thankful for Thanksgiving and Pictures!

And you!

It was a hectic Thanksgiving week in my little apartment, but I was so thankful to have my family in Portland. It was B and C's first time here so that made it extra exciting. I was really missing my family so it was so nice to have time with them. I think until I live in a much larger house we will not be cooking Thanksgiving dinner again. We will be getting take out as originally planned before I lost my mind and thought that cooking for 9 sounded like a good idea.

We took B on the standard gorge tour. It was a beautiful day. You can tell that he loved it.

This is my sisters beautiful family. A,B and C.

The highlight for me was finally getting to play with Caroline. Suffice it to say I am obsessed with her. And can you blame me? (Minus that BYU beanie. B's only flaw.)

Could you die over this face? I could. And do. Daily.

My awesome family minus Trent. Only a few more months until he is home from Paraguay. I.Cant.Wait.

Now I am thankful that Christmas is just around the corner and I get to see them again.

Another one bites the dust

Another half marathon down. I have to admit, this race was not the same inspiring, thrilling experience that my first race was. I had a hard time mentally getting into this one. I am so happy I had 3 awesome friends to run it with. That sure helped my cause. We had a fantastic weekend in Eugene and really got incredibly lucky with weather. It was cold, but sunny and beautiful instead of gray and pouring like it was supposed to. A not so small tender mercy. The course was beautiful and the race went really well. I got a new PR at 2:07:57. So that was exciting. Marissa and I stuck together the whole race which I was so happy about. But we all finished within a few minutes of each other. I am so glad we found a race that we could all do together. It was awesome. Feeling surprisingly good after the race.
We got some lovely roses out of the deal from our husbands. And some chocolate milk...which at the time was even better than the roses.

We spent the afternoon lounging at the Smith Compound. We napped and chatted and shot some guns. Just a typical afternoon.
I seriously love these girls and am so happy they kicked my butt into gear and got me into another race.

the M word.

I have been chatting a lot lately with my friend at work about marriage and why and how it works for some people and not for others. I have been so discouraged by so many media stories of spouses cheating and leaving their families for things that are so fleeting and often immoral. I have seen interviews and talk shows and read articles about how difficult marriage is and how unlikely you are to succeed. I have seen heartache of friends and family that I can't even imagine. I have really begun to realize how grateful I am for my religion that has taught me how to have a happy and successful marriage and family life. That is not to say that I don't mess things up by my poor or selfish choices on a regular basis, but no matter what dumb thing I do (or on a rare occasion Tyler does) I always know that it is fixable and manageable. And while I have to agree that marriage can be hard work, I really don't see it that way. Marriage is uplifting and fulfilling and one of the only things that brings me happiness every single day. I have a partner in crime for the rest of my life and beyond. How can I view that as hard work? My marriage gives me power and confidence to improve myself, my life and my happiness. Why would we marry if not to make life better and more successful? I read an article today that was so refreshing. Basically it said to take some responsibility for your own relationship and happiness. Everything is two sided and you have as much a part to play in your happiness as your partner does. I don't want to sound insensitive, because I know there are extenuating circumstances which may not apply to that sentence. I also know that I have a long way to go on that path. I am really skilled at playing the victim in every possible scenario, but I am working on it. Guess whose decision it is to be selfish and to feel sorry for myself? Its mine. At least I recognize that right? So to wrap it up, I am grateful that there are people out there who view marriage as I do. That it is not a burden, it is not a temporary relationship and it is not one sided. And boy am I grateful to have a wonderful husband who sees the world very similarly to me and is willing to enjoy the wild ride of life when we don't see eye to eye. And somehow we always seem to make it work, and even come out better in the end.

Read the article here. Its nice and short. And as I said, refreshing.

Play Like Paul

That is the motto in our house. Truly. It has been for a long time. Ever since Tyler coached my little brothers little league basketball team. And that was a long time ago friends. So it is just important to note that we have been on the Paul train since the beginning. I mean, I do wear his jersey. However, that being said, we are normally shouting things like "Throw it DOWN Paul!" and "Do NOT bring that weak stuff into Paul's house! You will get BLOCKED fool!" Rarely, actually never, have we shouted at Paul to launch any fading 3 pointers in the final moments of any game. Until now. I actually think Tyler might love Paul more than me...or at least equal to me. But I am okay with that because I feel the same. Now I just want to know if Paul was just having a magical night or if he is seriously going to be able to hit a 3 like Korver (I miss Korver by the way). Either way last night was ridiculous. And we loved every minute of it.

Also can I just say how much I love Matt Harpring? Major improvement in my book. I feel like I say this at the beginning of every season, but...here we go again!

Go ahead, watch the joy here:

Mostly for me, and not for you.

So I found the rest of my pictures from our trip up to Washington and just for the sake of documenting the trip I want to throw the rest of the pictures up. Lake Crescent was stunning, and my favorite few days of the trip. But before we get to that, here are the photos from "The Hike of Death." As you can see from the photo below it was actually called Klahane Ridge, but that is not an appropriate title if you ask me. This ridiculous hike was straight up the mountain. I have never seen or experienced anything like it. I sort of thought my lungs were going to explode. We started down by the road you can see. From the road to where this picture was taken was 1 1/2 miles. Not long enough to be that high up a mountain. This picture is my attempt to show how steep this sucker was...which is clearly impossible to show because this looks doable. Luckily it was a perfect day and so beautiful that I felt as if I was sucked into a scene from The Sound of Music, so I sang my favorites from the movie and eventually made it to the top.

We had incredible views of the surrounding mountain ranges and glaciers.

Marilee is one tough lady. Larry pulled the smart move and stayed back at the bottom and napped and ate candy. Go Utes!Tyler resting among the wildflowers. Again...can you see the steepness?
The were so many wild flowers covering the mountain. It was so beautiful. I wanted to pick myself a bouquet, but settled for some photos instead.

Somehow we made it back down the mountain alive. And despite how dang hard it was we had a great time. But now, on to Lake Crescent.

Lake Crescent was without a doubt one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Not to mention ridiculously relaxing. We had a lovely little cottage to stay in and a huge fancy dinner. We rented a row boat and spent an hour on the lake. Then we sat on the dock, and took pictures all evening after which we decided to go for a late night swim. For some reason I could not resist. I loved every second of this place. Tyler exercised his better judgement and sat this one out as the designated photographer.
Some early morning shots before we left.

Before we headed home we did a little hike to this lovely fall.

I am slightly obsessed with wild mushrooms for some reason. I think it goes back to my love for Ferngully. So naturally I was very excited to see these awesome babies on our hike.

And this is just Marilee being Marilee. She hiked down a serious ledge to get to that rock. You would think that after getting the worlds worst black eye she would be a bit more hesitant to do such things, but no. And that is why we love her. Just us taking the ferry to Seattle for our last night before heading home.

We had a fantastic 1,000 mile road trip. Now on to planning for next year!

My niece is really really cute

And she is coming to my house in 16 days! Which also means I am cooking my first full fledged Thanksgiving dinner.

Yikes.

Numero Cinco

Saturday is going to be a scary day at our house. I think Tyler may need a paperbag to make it though the whole game. But for now, we are happy to see ourselves in that number 5 spot!

Go Utes!

Chi Town

I spent the last five days in Chicago on a business trip. I can honestly say it is the most tired I have ever been in my life. I worked 76 hours in 5 days. But I had an awesome time thanks to the fantastic people I worked with and got to know, and the amazing event I got to host. Plus Chicago is pretty cool too.

Chicago is a beautiful city. Especially at night. I loved the tiny bit that I got to see. I am now an excellent drink orderer. Virgin Style. I got a lot of practice in. Let me tell you. Open bars all week long equate to a great deal of drinking.

Doesn't that look delightful? Sometimes late at night when you are deliriously tired, strange things happen.
I only got to go out one night, but I fell in love with Chicago. I cannot wait to go back on vacation when I can actually explore the city. I think I like it more than New York, even from the small bit that I saw.

This is the awesome team I worked with.

We had a beautiful cocktail reception at the Art Institute.

It was a crazy, busy and fabulous time. My work really knows how to throw an extravagant party. It was very cool to be a part of it. Now if only I could get a job in the communications department...aka the party planners of my company...