Visiting Ephraim

Jacie and Shane's open house was this past Friday evening in Ephraim, Utah. Such a different place than Chad and I are used to... it is most definately a "country small town". Even just driving down to get there, we drove through this tiny small towns along the way that took us a total of 2 1/2 minutes to drive from one end to the other on the main street. Ephraim is a little bit bigger than some, it does have 1) Walmart 2) Snow College and 3) one traffic light, but it was still a totally new experience. Here is the backyard where the open house BBQ took place:

Setting up... we got there a little early. We just missed the Saltzmans so much while they were gone away galavanting around Cancun.

Wedding pictures from Scott Jarvie.

Centerpieces. They had purple stems/leaves and red flowers. Pretty.

Chad holding Everett, Callin and Chrisanne's son. We just love those Bakers. Everett is absolutely adorable.

Callin and Chrisanne.

The BBQ was kind of a big deal.

Cheryl with the cute Dana (Shane & Jacie's sister-in-law)

Love this girl.

Shane hanging out with his friends at the cool table.

Shane & Jacie's niece Avery REALLY liked the chocolate cupcakes, she even decided to save some for later.

Casa de Infierno part 2

I love the 4th of July. In the history of 4th of Julys past, this holiday is a day of BBQ's, beach days, and being with friends. Since being in Utah, the idea has been generally the same minus the beach day and now I have my Chad! He's the BBQ expert (as shown above). Because the Stadium of Fire is the big event happening right accross the street from our house, we have titled our annual 4th of July shindig as "Casa de Infierno".

This year our guests included: Katilin & Danny (Chad's sister and our brother-in-law) who drove up from Vegas for the weekend, Kimber & Jason +Kenzie (Chad's sister and our brother-in-law), our best friends Shane & Jacie (they just got back from their honeymoon on Friday... we missed them!), and then Shane's brother Eric & Cheryl +Avery and Dana (their daughters). I love having friends over for any occasion, it reminds of being at home. I love it!

Chad and Kaitlin.

Earlier in the afternoon, it was just a few of us and we decided to play a couple of rounds of Nerts. Apparently it was a weekend of games galore. It was pretty awesome.

Jacie & Shane.

Kaitlin & Danny.

Chad & I.

Chad and Shane. Gotta love 'em. Don't worry, Chad is just getting ready to BBQ. He doesn't normally wear that sexy apron.

The whole gang has arrived.

Kenzie, gotta love this girl. She's just so darn cute.

Chad with his sexy apron on, grilling up a storm. I forgot to take a picture of all the food, but it was delicious. We had BBQ pork sandwhiches, brauts (sp?), grilled chicken, potato salad, watermelon, chips & dip, a green salad, and then a dessert of homemade apple pie & ice cream!

We laid out a couple of blankets on the front lawn, set up some camp chairs, and sat our front with our food to eat/ sell parking for the Stadium of Fire event.

The boys eating on the porch.
Jacie loves food. Look at the expression of sheer joy on her face.
Kenzie again. I just love taking pictures of her.
Kaitlin & Danny.
Jacie and I, our plates completely empty. It was so tasty!
Shane holding his niece Dana. She wasn't too happy about it.
Jacie and I!
My man and I.
Shane and his niece Avery. She is pretty much in love with Shane. She hung out with him all night and pretty much idolized him. Adorable.
Kenzie introducing herself to Dana.
Kenzie is also in love with her uncle Danny. They had a blast hanging out on the front lawn.
After dinner, the boys hopped on our bikes and rode down to Provo High School to buy some fireworks for the evening. Everything was on sale, it was great!
Jacie and Avery.

The Goodwin family.

Avery covering her ears during the "loud" fireworks.
It was a fantastic 4th of July, just hanging out with our friends. I can't wait for next year!

July 3rd: A perfect day.

July 3rd, 2009. The day was destined for greatness from the beginning. Chad was miraculously scheduled for Friday as his day off and I didn't have work either. The morning began with blue skies and a wide open day of ZERO committments. Awesome. We of course decided that a mountain bike ride was absolutely necessary and therefore got up at 7:00 to head out. We walked outside and were greeted by a flock of hot air balloons floating lazily accross the sky. Being a resident of Utah County for less than two years, the sight of the beautiful, majestic balloons still has a magical quality to them. I just love 'em.

This balloon was my favorite... Smokey the Bear!

For our mountain biking adventure, we loaded up the bikes and drove up to Draper to ride in Corner Canyon. This wilderness area is located directly behind the Draper temple and is absolutely beautiful. I love the winding dirt trails up the side of the mountain, through trees, around corners, and then a gap in the greenery reveals this:

My hubby. We wore matching bike jerseys. Cute, I know.
Taking a quick breather about halfway up the 1/2 hour climb.
Another picture of the temple.
My man and I... we're pretty much hardcore mountain bikers.
After our epic 2 hour ride, we came home and started getting ready for the day. At 12:30, Kaitlin, Kimber, and Kenzie came over for some lunch and to hang out for a few hours. (Katlin and Danny had driven up the night before so that they could spend the 4th of July with us!) Breakfast for lunch was on the menu and we busted out some Swedish pancakes for the occasion.
Kenzie was excited about it.
After lunch, Kenzie ran out of energy, so Kimber had to take her home for a nap. Kaitlin, Danny, Chad, and I then brought out Settlers of Catan for a rousing game. It's been so long since I've played, and I was so excited to be playing again, that I wasn't overly competitve (Chad claims that I am the majority of the time), and only squeezed by with a narrow victory. I love that game.Chad has been wanting to go and see Transformers 2 since it came out, so we hit up a 5:00 p.m. matinee. Who knew it was so much cheaper to see a matinee? We only paid $11.00 for the two of us to see a movie! Not bad at all. Anyways, we both loved the movie and determined that despite how good it was, the first one is still better. This one was just a little bit more on the adult side: a little more swearing, lots of Megan Fox running around in a tanktop with her boobs bouncing around, and more fighting. Well, you can't win 'em all.
After the movie, we decided to go all sorts of crazy and eat Five Guys for dinner. It was pretty much like a vacation, so why not eat out? Chad was excited for his burger and Tuscan-flavored fries. Don't worry, Chad didn't betray his beloved In-N-Out. He said that In-N-Out is still better.
It was the perfect end of a perfect day in July.