Thanksgiving Weekend

This last weekend for Thanksgiving we went to Utah.  We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Olpin side of the family at Grandma and Grandpa Olpin's house in Heber.  It was fun to see all the kiddos and my cousins and even their kiddos!  We hung out with my family as well as with the Barlow side of the family.  We had fun shopping with Kate and Melinda and going to dinner with them and Garrett and Leanne and the boys.  We also went shopping with my mom and Aunt Kathy and tried a great restaurant called Blue Lemon, man it was yummy!  We got some great deals and completed most of our Christmas shopping.  It really was a great weekend, lots of fun with friends and family.

I have so much to be grateful for.  I am married to the man of my dreams.  I never imagined that I would actually find a guy that met everything I always dreamed for, but I did.  I have an absolutely awesome family that always has my back.  I married in to a great family that has made me feel so welcome as the newest addition to their family.  I am blessed to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints.  I am grateful for education and work.  I am grateful for the beauty of nature and the peace and serenity that can be found there.  I am grateful for life!!

This was a find at the new outlets at Traverse Mountain.

Yes.  This is a mother's room.

It's huge.

Bring on the Christmas Decorations!

Idaho

Well, we have now lived in Idaho for 7 1/2 months.  I randomly take pictures on my phone of things I see while I'm driving or doing this and that.  So tonight, as I pulled pictures off my phone, I figured I would share some of Idaho with you.  Here it is!

 A gajillion bug guts on the car windshield.

 This is almost a daily occurrence to be slowed by 

tractors on the road.

One day, I even saw a caravan of tractors.  On the highway.

Only in Idaho.

 Cheapest. Potatoes. Ever.

Or so I thought.  They are now 15 lbs for this

price.  If you need some, let me know!

Now for some pretty pictures.  Idaho is absolutely beautiful and I have been lucky enough to snap a few great shots, not as many as I wish, but a few.

 Idaho falls Temple, by the falls

 The view as you walk out of the Rexburg

temple just after rain on the new crops

Grand Tetons

Taken in Saint Anthony while Brock was "Diggin' spuds"

for Spud Harvest

 Also taken in Saint Anthony

The Rexburg Temple after a snowstorm.

BYU Football

This is just a reminder that I love BYU football.  It hasn't been the most exciting lately, but I love them anyways.  We were given tickets while in Utah to go to the game this last weekend.  It was freezing cold and we left part way through the 2nd quarter because we were up by 35 points.  But I love going to the football games and being on the campus!

 Ready to face the cold for a bit!

I got a little emotional when they brought this

out for the national anthem.

It was very emotional after the election that

earlier in the week.

Visitors!!

This last weekend we had some visitors!  My parents came in to town on Friday night.  We mostly just sat around and chatted.  We tried to convince them that they needed a new TV with a blu-ray player.  I don't know if we convinced them, but it was fun.

Saturday morning me and my parents got up early before Brock and made breakfast for him since it was his birthday!  We made pancakes, eggs, bacon, orange juice, syrup, the works.  It was fun to just hang out with them and to have them in on the surprise.

I had to work for a few hours that day, but when I got off of work, we went to Big Jud's.  It's a grease pit.  A delicious grease pit.  You know the kind with the pounder challenge?  Eat the whole one pound hamburger, one pound of fries, don't throw up and you get all for free.  Ya, that place.  I am not too embarrassed to admit that we love that place.  Best fries ever.  Seriously.  (Even though you can feel your arteries clogging just by looking at them.)  So we introduced my parents to it.  It was a great meal.  Then we went to the Rexburg Air Museum.  I bet you didn't know Rexburg had one of those.  I am learning that lots of small town's have air museums, and they are pretty cool!

Brock gave my parents the tour of the town while I was at work.  Mom and Dad brought their old grill up so Dad and Brock worked on cleaning that, you know, a good manly task.  So we now have a grill of our own and we got a great chance to show Mom and Dad our apartment and where we live.  We love having visitors!!

 Check out the size on that puppy.

We decided to tease Travis with this picture

(He was supposed to do yoga at home that

night and didn't)

They are all attempting a yoga pose.

Campaign 2012/Vegas

So there we were on a Wednesday night.  Me, Brock, Amanda and Jessica. (the Kirkby girls, Brock's cousin's daughters)  We were playing games at our kitchen table when Brock mentioned that he had seen a job posting to go to Vegas for a couple of days to help with the campaign for a non-profit group called American's for Prosperity.  It was 11 pm on that Wednesday night and the bus was leaving at 2 pm the following day.

We decided to be spontaneous and go.  We had to make some special arrangements, but we pulled it off.  It was the longest bus ride I've ever been on!  The bus didn't leave Rexburg until 6pm.  We had to stop in Logan, Salt Lake, and Provo to pick up more people, and then rest stops in Fillmore and St. George.  We finally got to Vegas about 6 am Vegas time.  We checked in to the hotel room and slept for about an hour and a half and then we were up and at it for a 12 hour day at work.  We went door to door surveying people about the election and issues the country is facing.

Sitting around waiting for our assignments

 Helping stack the waters using the bellhop cart

After working that day we took a quick trip to the strip.  One of the girls in the group had never been to Vegas so we showed her the basics.  We made it to the Bellagio fountains, which is of course, the most classic part of the strip.

 Brock and I at the Bellagio, don't mind that we look a little gross after walking all day

 Jessica and Amanda

So thankful for these girls living

in Rexburg!!

The next day we got up bright and early again and had another day of knocking doors.  We called it quits a little earlier because the group was sponsoring a program to raise awareness.  We had VIP tickets to this event.  3 Doors down did a concert.  They were big when I was in Jr High and High School.  It was a ton of fun to sit so close and because it was Brock's first concert outside of church related concerts.

After that we got on to the bus and drove through the night again and got back to Rexburg at 11:30 am.  It was a long and exhausting weekend, but we had so much fun!!  We laughed a lot, we worked hard, we stood up for a cause that we believe in.  And it was an all expense paid trip to Vegas and we were able to earn money at the same time.

 Check out how close our seats were!!

 Oh ya, and we will NEVER be able to watch Madagascar 3 again.  EVER.

One final picture of a very sleepy boy.  We both slept for about 5 hours at least when we got back home.  I secretly love seeing him when he is asleep, I don't know why, but I do.

Birthday Wish Come True

I love Disneyland!!  I have always had two dreams with Disneyland.

Dream 1:  Go to Disneyland on my birthday.

Dream 2:  Go to Disneyland with my sweetheart.

Check and check.  Thank you to Brock for an awesome day and making both of those come true!

I got a special birthday pin, call me a 5 year old, but it was sweet.  They even gave Brock a pin that said he was celebrating.  The park opened at 10 and closed at 8 so we didn't have a ton of time, but we still got through both parks with time to spare.

Cars Land just opened a couple months ago so I had really been looking forward to going.  It was awesome!!  They did such a good job with everything, I literally felt like I was in Radiator Springs.  The rides are mostly geared towards little kids, but the "Radiator Springs Racers" were awesome!!  What a fun, fun, clever ride!

World of Color, was of course, AMAZING!!!!  Brock was blown away by it which was so fun.  He said that World of Color alone was worth what we paid to get in to the park.  And since that is one of my favorite parts of Disneyland, I was glad he liked it!  We had a great day and it was just so fun to be there on my birthday with the man of my dreams.

The rest of the California trip was fantastic as well.  We stayed with Corrine and Alisa which was way fun.  I got to meet Brock's brother Todd for the first time.  He is on base in San Diego right now so we got to drive down and see him.

We spent lots of time with the nieces and nephews, we had a blast playing with them and they were excited to see us.  Exhibit A:

Mac was all over the place goofing off and making us laugh

We got to go to all the kids sporting events on Saturday, we went to 5 soccer games and 1 football game.  It was a long day but it was an absolute blast and we loved supporting the kiddos!

Hallie scored 5 goals!

Brock working on technique with Ty

Mac's team ready to go

The Bird kids on game day

It was a fun trip and a great week long vacation from work and the day to day life.

Oh ya, and we bought a new car while we were there. :D

East Idaho State Fair

This may come as a shock to you, but in Idaho, the state fair is a BIG deal.  Everybody talks about it, it last for 10 days, and pretty much everybody goes.  The credit union was sponsoring the fair this year so we got a sweet hookup on tickets.  We got into the fair AND the rodeo for just 5 dollars.  It was a great deal.  I thought the fair was in Idaho Falls, but it wound up being in Blackfoot so we had to drive another 20 minutes.  We almost didn't go because of that but I'm glad we did!

I haven't been to a true fair in years.  We used to go all the time to fair days in Heber, and when they had the fair in Murray as a kid, we would go to that.  It was so fun.  We went to see all the animals and the various fair booths.

The rodeo was waaaaaaaaaay fun!!  I haven't been to a rode on in a couple years and they are always a blast.  We thought that Idaho would be a big rodeo place but this was actually east Idaho's first PRCA rodeo.  They did pretty good, there were some young guys that were outstanding.  Brock knows a lot about the Rodeo because his dad used to be a part of them so it was way fun!  Overall, it was definitely a small town feeling fair, but it was a lot of fun and a great date night for 10 bucks!