Catching Up

I'm like 5 months behind on blogging, and in the blogging world that's like 10 years, so here is a recap of the last little while.

Arkansas - Rick lived there for 9 months, I lived there for 6 months. The whole time we were there we were living in a hotel room. I can't believe we did that. It was pretty there, but I'm glad we are back in Arizona.

We were supposed to go to Lake Powell in August for the Brimhall Family Reunion. We purchased our non-refundable plane tickets from Arkansas to Arizona, and 5 minutes later we found out that the houseboat was broken and they were canceling the reunion. We decided that we would go to Arizona and spend a few days at the Ranch, and then drive to Sea World. It's only about a 6 hour drive so it wasn't bad at all, and we had so much fun. We went with Rick's older sister Christina and her family. 

The dolphin show was amazing. Definitely my favorite part of Sea World.

I felt like I was watching the olympics while these dudes in colorful bird costumes dove into the water.

While we were there we noticed a lady at a caricature stand, and Rick wanted her to draw us. Before we sat in the chair he looked her in the eye and in all seriousness said "make sure you make my beard look awesome." He was pleased with the result.

I, on the other hand, had no idea that the feature that would make this artwork look the most like me was the gigantic beak like nose that I apparently have. So that was fun to find out about myself.

We also spent a few days at the beach where I discovered that I am awesome at boogie boarding, and where Rick and I both got stung by a jellyfish for the first time.

The next month we went to Utah to celebrate Rick's 30th Birthday. We had a pizza party at a park with a bunch of Rick's friends. It was so fun to see so many people that we love. Our friend Trish is a baker/decorator at Cupcake Chic in orem and she made some awesome cakes for us! One of them was even a vegan cake. She's amazing. Rick's favorite cake was the german chocolate that had a train on it. He was so happy about it.

Rick rented an SS Camaro while we were there. I've never seen him so happy. All in all he had a great birthday and we are both so happy we were able to spend it in Utah.

My friend Sabina lives in Provo and she has a sister that lives in Little Rock, so she came out to spend a few weeks with them. We were able to meet up a few times for dinner and we also went to the Little Rock Air Force Base to watch to air show. It was really fun, and I'm now realizing we never got a picture of the 2 of us, so you'll just have to imagine us out to dinner eating delicious pizza and at the air show watching all the different planes doing tricks. And me getting nervous every time the planes almost crashed into each other but turned away at the very last second.

For Thanksgiving we wanted to go to either Rick's parent's ranch in AZ or to my parents house in UT, but Rick didn't have the time off and we didn't have the money for more traveling. So, by nothing short of a miracle, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for me, Rick, and our friend Ronnie who works with Rick, in our tiny hotel room using a crockpot for the turkey, the stove top for the mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, and a very tiny toaster oven to cook the pie, rolls, and green bean casserole. I was sure that something would go wrong, but it all turned out delicious and was kinda fun. It was definitely a Thanksgiving to be remembered.

For Christmas this year we decided we were just going to stay in Arizona and celebrate with the 2 of us, but Rick found out that he had a weeks worth of Paid days off that he needed to use up by December 31. So we packed our bags and headed to Utah. We didn't tell anyone we were coming until we were in St. George. It was fun to be able to surprise everyone but even more fun to be able to spend time with our friends and family. We were able to see Rick's siblings and have a Christmas party with my family, plus being able to see many friends. It was a wonderful Christmas.

My parents have neighbors who breed shih-tzus, and they had 1 left that they needed to find a home for. I knew there was no way Rick would be cool with it so I didn't even bother to ask him. The next day, he knocked on the bedroom door to wake me up, then came in with the cutest little puppy with a red bow on her head and said "Merry Christmas!" I totally thought he was kidding for like 30 seconds, but when I realized he wasn't, I was so so so happy. We named her Maya because we got her on December 21, 2012 - the day of the end of the Mayan calendar. So far she has been the best little puppy. She and Rick are asleep next to each other on the floor right now. We love her. I think this year was our best Christmas so far.

On New Years Eve we stayed home, watched Saturday Night Live, drank sparkling cider, and drifted off to sleep listening to the sounds of fireworks and/or gunshots outside. My goals for 2013 are to do well in school, be happy and healthy, and never ever live in Arkansas again. So far we're off to a good start.