Bracken and Mikayla

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T18:28:00.001-06:00

Bracken and I have never dressed up together in costume and gone to a Halloween party until this year. Our friends that we play soccer with invited us to their annual Halloween costume party. I was so excited. We started getting ideas together, the night before. Our neighbor Dana said they were Fred and Wilma Flinstone the year before and since we ran out of time, we ran with the idea and dressed up as the pair.

Bracken set up our camera and took a picture of the two of us before we headed out to party.

All I can say is we have some great friends. Everyone dressed to impress and there were some great costumes!

Of course the night had to end with some kisses, I had to leave my mark. That red lipstick stuck with me all night, the next morning and the next night. Guess red is my new color. Happy Halloween!

Weekend Down South

2011-10-21T11:59:00.000-06:00

My mom and sister decided to participate in the Cedar City 1/2 Marathon. It was my mom's very first one! They both did so great! The weather the night before was so rainy and stormy and the next morning when we got up for the marathon it was beautiful.

Oh and did I mention that I stayed up until 1 in the morning making this poster for my mom and sis! It was well worth it.

I was so proud of my mom and I hope that she does another marathon, because it was sure fun watching her cross the finish line.

After the marathon Bracken picked me up in Cedar and we headed to St. George for his cousin Whitney's wedding. The next day I went real golfing for the first time. I swung a club a few times but it was more for a picture op then anything. Bracken's aunt Leslie was a die hard. She's all pro.

It was so much fun to see all the guys golfing together. Bracken's dad, younger brother Bray and Z, grandpa Dave, Uncle Doug and cousin Carson. We had quite the crew.

By the end of the trip we had soaked up some sun, and had a great time with both families.

Zootastic

2011-09-11T23:26:00.001-06:00

Last Wednesday I had the day off and I was feeling like doing something fun. So I called my neighbor Dana and said we should go to the zoo. A few phone calls later and canceling her Children's Museum plans we were headed to the zoo! I hadn't been to the zoo in years and I was so excited!

This giant elephant would make sounds every minute or so and Hadeigh and Colter (Dana's kids) were afraid of it and wouldn't get a picture with me so Dana and I took our first photo of the day.

This is by the elephants. I think the baby elephants name was Zuri. She was sure cute! Oh and if you are thinking that Hadeight is talking, or gazing at something, or whatever you might be thinking your wrong, that is how she smiles and I love it!

Next we were headed to the tigers! Oh and this is the best smile ever on cute Hadleigh's face!

Dana got her photo taking skills on and used her stroller to get all of us in the picture. Her friend and daughter went with us. All of us made it in the picture except for baby Blake, he was sleeping in the stroller.

Next the giraffes. This one kept coming so close to us! Colter would not smile in a picture with me, even after we tried several bribes. Oh well at least you can see cute Hadleigh trying to get the best view possible.

So we stopped by the monkey building and I fell in love with this cute one. I don't even know what it is called but it was sure cute. I just sat and watched it for a few minutes. Little did I know Dana was watching and laughing at me.

He was my favorite animal for the day.

Another cute picture with the kids on the rhino. It was very slippery and hard to climb up on.

Colter wanted to go for a ride on the carousel, and since Hadleigh didn't want to go I got to go with him. He wanted to ride the Elephant, it was his favorite animal and still is as far as I know. It might have changed, but on that day it was his favorite.

And of course I had to keep Dana entertained while she watched us go around, and around, and around..... you get the picture.

After we saw the real gorilla we found this one. I had to give him a kiss he was too cute!

Dana has a season pass to the zoo and goes quite frequently. On a previous trip there she took this exact same picture and I loved it. So of course I had to copy her and get one for myself. It was kind of hard climbing into that turtle shell, but it was worth the outcome.

Overall I loved my day at the zoo. It was so much fun going with the kids and having them tell me the animals names! They were so cute! I love it, maybe even more than they did. I can't wait to go again!

Bikes, Melon and chickens?

2011-09-11T22:58:00.001-06:00

So I had Labor Day off, which I never do so we made some plans. Since the weather is quickly turning cold my dad called Brack and I and asked if we wanted to go for a motorcycle ride. We of course said yes. So we drove up to Kamas and met my mom and dad and Steve and Tiffany Price. The three of us then headed up through Woodland and towards a small town called Hana. We stopped at a greasy diner and had lunch.

After our ride home we went and sat in my parents backyard. Took a quick nap because I woke everyone up after having a spider crawl on my arm. My dad came went in the house and a few minutes later came back with giant slices of watermelon.

Well since we were up there, I had to go get the eggs out of the chicken coop. There were a few. You can kind of see in the background my paint job I did back in high school to make he chickens feel a little bit more at home. It is now more covered in poop but it still remains. Overall it was a great day off!

Duck Fork Campin

2011-08-18T11:39:00.002-06:00

Every year Bracken's family heads up towards Gunnison to go camping up at Duck Fork. It is up in the mountains and it is so beautiful. Of course the first thing that we did was go fishing. Bracken's cute cousin Ezra wanted to come with us in our truck. He lasted only a few minutes before he zonked out.

Brack has this new thing for fishing. He loves it. He is all pro now with his new fishin pole and he sexy fishing vest. He did teach me how to set up my own fishing pole. (He was probably just tired of setting up mine all the time.)

This is us at Willow Lake. I caught two fish my first two casts.

There are 3 lakes within 10 minutes of our campsite. The second day we started at Willow and no one was really catching anything so we ditched that lake and headed to Fairview. Ezie loves Bracken and of course had to go for a ride on the way.

One thing I love that we do is shoot guns. A few of Bracken's uncles bring their guns and we have a big shooting fest. I shot a few different ones. Of course the picture we got was with the little gun.

This gun was way fun to shoot. It was my first time shooting a gun with a scope on it. I had a hard time finding my target, but it didn't stop me from lettin it rip. Brack of course shot every gun that we had. Including his uncle Chandlers 50 cal hand gun. The bullets look like chapsticks!

We celebrated z's birthday (Brack's brother), while we were up there. We blew up balloons, hung a sign, threw confetti, it was really cute. This is Brackens uncle CJ and aunt Katie, aunt Siri and his mom Lisa. We were just waiting for the dutch oven cake to get done. It was delicious.

Bracken's grandma Shar is always a busy body. She challenged me to play washers with her. Each person has these tiny little washers that you toss into a box. Inside the box was a round tube. The object ws to try and toss the washers into the box for 1 point and into the center tube for 3 points, easier said then done.

At the end of the trip it is like a big picture fest. Everyone gets family pictures, sister-in-law pictures, grandkid pictures, brother pictures. Lots of pictures, but that where all the memories come from.

At the end of the day we had a great trip. It is always fun spending time with his family camping. Can't wait until next year!

Happy Anniversary!

2011-08-17T23:11:00.001-06:00

8-9-10 Happy 1 year anniversary!

We were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple for time and all eternity by my grandpa Herbert. It was so special having him seal us.

So on our 1 year anniversary Bracken started off our day with 2 dozen red roses sent to my work.

Well little did he know that our cute neighbors Colter, Hadleigh, and their mom Dana helped me color our sidewalk so that when Bracken got home there was a special message waiting for him.

This is Brack and I drawn by the great artist, Dana, my neighbor.

We headed off to Red Lobster for some steak, shrimp, crab, and lobster. Yummy!! It was a great end to a great day!

After we got home we had to get a few pictures to remember our 1st year together. It's been a great one!

... and he can still pick me up :) Here are a few pics from our first year together.

The end of a great day but the start to an exciting adventure!

Our first Christmas tree, I was bummed I couldn't find a picture of it all decked out. It was really cute though. I had to close one night at work and I got home around ten. Brack had went out and bought our tree, set it up, and wrapped it with lights. He is always good at surprising me.

Our first Christmas together was sure a good one. Bracken spoiled me as always. Never stays within his budget.

We took our first offical trip together to Seattle. It was so much fun! I loved getting away and getting some free time to ourselves.

I got daring and cut bangs for the first time. They were fun for awhile, then Brack suggested to grow them back out. It was a good change.

Since our birthdays are only a day apart we celebrated together We went our with all of our close friends for a fun night of bowling.

I was so proud of my sweet cake that I made for Brack, even though we didn't even eat it. At least it looked cute.

Easter this year was spent down in St. George. We set up an Easter egg hunt for the kids, but of course we had to at least find one. Brack's mom also had us dye Easter eggs. It was fun being with him family.

We then spent some time with my family and went up to our cabin. It's a good thing we love camping cause we sure did it a lot!

This was dinner at Bonzai, our favorite resturant. We went for Bracken's brothers birthday.

And of course the summer is always full with Real games.

Overall we had a great year! I am so excited for our next year to come. I'm sure it will be filled with more surprises and adventures. I'm sure blessed to have my sweet husband. Happy Anniversary!

Did you say turkey poop?

2011-07-31T23:35:00.002-06:00

The day started off with our cute neighbors Colter and Hadleigh. They wanted to come over to Backen and Kayla's house. Well Colter loves Bracken's motorcycle but only when it's not moving or running. So we sat him and his sis down on it and had to get a picture.

We also discovered while taking pictures that Hadleigh has the best cheesy smile, well at least I think that is what she is trying to do.

Then Bracken started tossing Colter and after a few takes we finally got a good one of him. Notice the pointed feet, he takes getting thrown serious.

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to plant some flowers in my little dirt patch in front of our house. I spent $6 on a few colorful ones, planted them and called it good. Well Dana and Eric decided they had to compete with the "Batemans" and Eric went out and spent over $40 on flowers!!! Well after a few days, almost all of their flowers died and mine were only looking better. So after some talking we decided it was their soil. So Dana and I went to Smith's to get reinforcements. Well at Smith's this cute lady, who most definetely had a green thumb, saw we looked clueless and helped us pick out some top soil. A few minutes later she came back and said, "I was thinking and you need to buy this too," It was a fertlizer, with yes, you guessed it... TURKEY POOP! So we bought it of course with a few new flowers to get her dirt patch back into shape.

And of course it got a little crazy!

Well after making her side look nice and fresh with dark dirt and new flowers, I had to dig up all my flowers and add some turkey poop so that mine side looked good too. It now has become a competition.

And of course you have to taste it, wait I mean of course NOT, but you have to get some pictures getting dirty. Oh and did I mention that it was raining this entire time! It got pretty dirty.

Meanwhile while Dana and I were planting flowers, Bracken and Colter were running around in the rain. It might not look like it but if you look at Bracken's shoulders and shirt he is soaking wet!!

At the end of the day Colter and Bracken tracked in water and grass into the house, Dana now has a flower bed that can temporarily compete with mine, and we'll have to see how well this turkey poop keeps our flowers alive.

Weekend at the Cabin

2011-07-31T23:07:00.001-06:00

Our familiy owns a cabin up Fairview canyon. My dad and family built it back in 1992. It has your traditional wood burning stove, no electricity, and of course an outhouse. My family took the 24th of July weekend and headed down for some fun in the great outdoors.

Our first day we were there, my brother pulled out his fancy gun and starting shooting at a metal target 750 yards away! Well of course since dad-e-o (what his son calls him) did it, Gage had to settle down and take aim.

Braxton and Austin got bored so decided to have a seat in the dirt while the big boys shot. Gage of course had to join.

This is the entire family at the cabin! All siblings, their spouses and children along with grandma and grandpa in front of the cabin.

I told my mom and dad to smile for a picture and this is what I got.

We all went for a cruise on this dirt road that took us all the way to the top of this gorgeous ridge. It was so pretty! Everywhere you turned just green mountains on every side!

My sister Kalli and her husband Scott

My sister Jennie and her husband John with their kids Braxton, Austin, and Brielle.

My brother Jeff, his wife Brit, and their two kids Gage and Lucy in their decked out razor!

This is my adorable niece bubbles. At first her nickname came because she would spit bubbles from her mouth all the time. I now think it is because she is the happiest bubbly baby girl I know, always smilin!

So we packed up and headed home but of course had to stop and do some fishin. Bracken was the only one to catch any fish will the help of my cute niece Brielle. Funny story, Bracken just caught a fish and needed to put another worm on his hook. He asked me to do it. Well I could see Bri was bored so I had her bend over to the worm cup and coaxed her into picking one up for me. Well she found it fun and we couldn't keep her out of the worms!! Oh and p.s. I got the worst sunburn ever from fishin that day!

I think this outfit deserves some sort of award for best dressed!

It was a great weekend with the family enjoying the outdoors! I can't wait to do it again!

The Emerald City

2011-05-18T19:11:00.000-06:00

So Brack and I took a trip up to Seattle to go visit his aunt and uncle who is really only a few years older than us. It was so beautiful up there and there was lots of fun stuff to do!

This is us at the Space Needle. Quick funny story. We came out of our hotel and I thought for sure we were suppose to head left. We started walking and finally stopped to ask someone because we weren't seeing it. We asked a security guy and he said it was on the opposite end of downtown. Yeah Brack was right and we had to walk all the way back to where we started then another mile passed that. I learned my lesson!

This giant ape thing was inside a market and Brack was a little intimidated at how well endowed it was :)

This is Siri (She married Brack's uncle but we are the same age) in front of the famous Pike's Place Fish Market. The fishermen would sing and toss the fish everytime someone would purchase one.

While we were at the market it happened to be the Seattle Cheese Festival. There were a lot of nasty, smelly, cheese samples.

I'm not a coffee drinker but I had to take a picture of this. It was the first origonal Starbucks.

What's cool about Seattle is there is so much to do all in walking distance. So we walked down to the Seattle Aquarium after we went to the fist market. Here are a few fun pictures from there.

Everyone knows we are huge Real Salt Lake fans, but we had to go to a Seattle Sounders game. They happened to be playing their rivals. What's cool is their fans meet in pioneer park about a mile from Quest Stadium and the march to the stadium chanting and singing. There were thousands of fans and they were lighting fireworks and yelling it was crazy! We finally were able to experience some Seattle rain for 90 minutes it just poured on us but it was still a good time! Oh and we were on the front row!

So our last day on our way to the airport we stopped to see Snoqualmie Falls. 260 feet of falling water! The mist rose all the way up to where we were standing.

On the way out we saw this old train on the side of the road. It was acutally a bunch of different train pieces made from different places and years that they grouped together. The oldest one we found was made in Utah in 1904!

Oh and our last picture of the trip was of this giant log. It had no history or anything about it. It was just sitting in the iron gate.Overall it was a great trip!!!

Greatest Weekend Ever!

2011-04-26T22:24:00.001-06:00

I have to share this amazing experience with you. Over this Easter weekend my mother-in-law, Lisa and brother-in-law, Brennan decided to get baptized by their dad, Brandon into the LDS church. I wish I could say in words the feelings that were shared during this incredible event. The words that were spoken were enough to convice anyone that this church is true. I was so blessed to witness my husband confirming his mother and the power of words that were spoken left me breathless when it was said and done. The tears swelled up in my eyes within the first five minutes and lasted till the very end. All I can say is how blessed I am to be a part of a church that can so strongly confirm that it is true. They were both so bright and you could see in their faces that they knew this was what they were suppose to do. What a neat day that will never be forgotton.

Here are a few pictures of the next few day enjoying Easter!

This was after we did a moonlight egg hunt! We had to use flashlights or in our case Bracks flashlight app on his phone.

My funny Mother-in-law Lisa.

Lisa's sister Leslie is quite the character! I had to post this picture of her because it fits her to a T!

This was my Easter Egg, not bad considering it's been a few years.

Lisa insisted that brack and I dye an Easter egg so Brack made one that said I heart my mom!

To finish off a great weekend Bracks Uncle and family stopped by Sunday night on their way home from Disneyland. We all crashed on the couch and watched School Of Rock. A few days ended up being one of the Greatest Weekends Ever!

GO REAL!

2011-04-26T22:08:00.001-06:00

I had to post a few pictures of us at Real just to cheer them on tomorrow. I'll get some pictures of us at the game tomorrow but I am so excited to see them play! Those of you who aren't big soccer fans Real is playing a Mexico team for the Concacaf Championship game! This is huge! The only Major League Soccer Team to ever play in a international tournament! SOLD OUT CROWD! Good Luck Real!

My First Blog

2011-04-17T16:02:00.003-06:00

Little bit about us...
Brack and I met back in high school. We dated for over four years when finally a day in June my life would suddenly change. He took me to dinner at the roof, little did I know what was going on below me. He told me to take a look out the window. (the waiter was able to catch all of these photos)

This is what I saw.

This is what happened next.

I said YES! of course.

A few months later on August 9, 2010 we were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple.

The night ended with fireworks to top off a perfect day.

Now it's just the two of us enjoying life as husband and wife!