San Fran and Triathalon

So every year for the past 10 years or so we've had a tradition with the girls of my family. Every spring we have a 'girl's weekend'. We usually go to Park City, Shakespeare Festival, Salt Lake, or Southern Utah, but this year we flew to San Franscisco! It was so much fun! It was me, my two older sisters, my mom and sister-in-law Nicole who's married to my younger brother. Cortney, who's married to my older brother couldn't come because she had a little baby at home and it just wasn't happening. We sure missed her!!! I also missed my husband, but it was definitely fun to get away with the girls and play!
We went to a museum of old arcade games in Fisherman's Wharf. There was crazy stuff in there!!! They must have been obsessed with executions for entertainment back in the day because there were like 6 different booths that you could pay a quarter and watch the little guys in the box execute someone either with guns, the guillitine, or hanging. Pretty creepy. Everything in there was in working order and you could put your quarter in to watch/play.

?????What the? I thought the olden days were innocent!

Can you believe it? These things had little places you could look down into to see. We of course did not waste our quarter on this olden day trash, but it was pretty funny to me that they had arcade types of sleezy entertainment. I guess it's not much different than today. There's sleeze all over the TV and movies we watch......I just didn't realize that the sleeze came in these types of forms years ago.

This was the sign for the arm wrestling guy below. He was pretty strong.

Seriously? Opium den? Inside were these Chinese people looking stoned and homeless laying in ragged blankets. We didn't put our quarter in to see what they'd do. We should have though cause now I'm curious.....

Oh naughty Marietta~!

Holy cow what a contraption this was! It had a sign describing it and it was called 'Laughing Betty' or something like that. She was in this glass box and like 3 times the size of a real human and you put your quarter in and she'd shake forward and back and laugh for like 5 minutes. It was really creepy. The sign said most kids were scared of her. I was scared of her.

Me and Nicole near the Seals.

We had to see the seals. The guy all by himself was hilarious. All the others are sleeping away on their dock, and this one was so pompous! He sat like this with his chest and nose in the air like he was the king! Whenever a seal got into the water and came too close he'd start growling and slapping around. One seal actually got up onto his dock and he whacked him off!! Rude.

Of course we had to hit China Town! This is a slight exageration, but I was trying to represent how insanely tired we were. This whole trip was go-go-go and once you left your hotel in the morning and rode the trolley cars you were out for the entire day and just walked and walked. Definitely fun, but by China Town on our last day we were all so tired and our feet throbbed!

We did a bike ride to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Tera, Kami, Nicole and mom.

Me and Nicole. We didn't wear helmets. Good thing we didn't crash.

View of San Fran from Alcatraz. A must-see if you go to San Fran!

Since it was impossible to get tickets here, we just saw Wicked there!!!! It was so good! I loved it!!

Kami, Nicole, Tera and me.

Here's what Justin was doing while I was gone. A Triathalon with Steve, Tera's husband. You go honey! He was 13th in his age bracket.

There was a fun art gallery outside that we walked through.

I wanted this fish sculpture!!!

In Utah we have Buffalo's....and horses. San Fran has hearts....."Everyone's gay in San Fran! We're all happy!" at least that's what the trolley guy operator said...

What a fun trip! My sister Tera who planned it is so awesome and worked so hard so that we all had fun! And we did!!!!!

Happy Birthday To ME!

So this is about 21 days too late, but it was my birthday and Justin of course is so dang cute and surprised me with dinner at Pei Wei and then took me up to a romantic getaway to a cabin up at Powder Mountain. This was his present to me :) A coupon book filled with massages and things he'll do for me and a shopping spree! He's so cute.
This was the cute little cabin. Notice it is snowing. It was overcast at home, I wore flip flops and he wore basketball shorts and we headed up and obviously we weren't prepared to be in the mountains. We were stuck with spring attire, and if we didn't have our Subaru there is no way we would have gotten out in the morning after it had dumped like 2 feet of snow! Bless that car!

The cute flowers that were waiting for me in the cabin.

Here I am first thing in the morning (as you can tell by the foggy, puffy eyed face I have). We just relaxed and watched a few movies and ate yummy food. It was a very fun birthday filled with fun gift certificates, a sprouter from my mom and good hiking/snow boots from my parents for hunting season and snow, cute wall decoration from my sister, and many more things with my shopping spree. Thanks everyone!!!! Although I don't like being 25. I still feel like I'm 18! 25 is like almost 30!

Half Marathon

Let's not run for like 6 months, (except maybe a few random 3 miles or so) then the day before a half marathon commit to run it, then go to Rodizzio's Grill and pound down massive amounts of meat for a late dinner (which I heard is really great right before a race....right), then stay up till 1 am then get up at 6 am to go to the starting line. Who does this? Really? I want to know. Oh, you did it? You, Justin? Yeah, Justin did this. Insane. I am consistantly amazed at Justin and the things he does. He is just talented at everything he does. I really thought he would struggle when he told me, the day before, "Hey, I'm running in a half marathon in the valley tomorrow." I should have more faith in him, but I must say I doubted him and almost laughed at him when he said this. Then I was worried about him. It was FREEZING up in the valley in Huntsville. It was snowing when they started and there was a brisk numbing wind as you can see below is blowing his jacket up which is making him look hunchbacked. We slept over at Adam and Melody's house because the race ran right past their house during mile 12 and Adam is the one that got Justin to run with him in it. So we girls slept in till 9 and sat outside on the porch in the freezing wind waiting for our men to run past. After they ran past we jumped in the car and met them at the finish line.

This is the picture I took out of the car window as I passed him heading towards the finish line. Kind of rude I know, him being on his 13th mile of running and here I am unknowingly taunting him with the option of getting in the car. He must have been beat by this time!

Running past the house as we sat on the porch.

Mile 13! Yay!!!

You did it! I am so proud of you!!!! So after he finished (which he finished in 1 hr 57 min. Not bad for someone who has not trained one ounce for it!!!!) he did just fine! A little tired and the next day his legs and joints hurt as expected, but by the second day or so he was back to his usual self. What the? I would have been down and out for days! He really has a natural talent. Get this boy in some training and he could do some damage!

And I just had to add this picture cause I think he's so dang studly!

FOR THE LOVE OF READING

So here I am, bored at work and I was just thinking about the book I'm reading at the moment. I have to say I have branched out quite a bit from the usual books I read this past year or so. I have always loved to read and am always looking for new books. Let me know if you have any good ideas! I love all types, like the popular ones: Harry Potter, Twilight, John Grisham books, Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, and ones that maybe no one has really heard of.The one I'm reading right now is "The Street Lawyer" by John Grisham. Very good. But I just wanted to mention a couple that I would recommend reading that I have found the past little bit:

#1: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
I have a hard time describing this book. It wasn't necessarily a book that I just couldn't put down, yet I couldn't wait to go read more. Definitely take your time with this book and savor it. I think I purposely didn't read it fast because subconsciously I didn't want it to end, and when it did I was very sad that it was over. I'm trying to read a lot more books so I can "forget" this book so I can read it again!

#2: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Many of you have probably read this or seen the movie, but if you haven't I highly recommend it. It is a delightful little book! It has a very good story line and keeps you entertained.

#3: A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton
I wouldn't say that I necessarily liked this book. I'm still trying to decide. It's a little depressing and sometimes makes you feel like our world is pretty crappy. That said, I still think you should read it. The author is a very good writer and probably the fact that I was so emotionally involved in the book, although in a negative aspect, only goes to show that she's a good writer.

#4: The Great and Terrible Series by Chris Stewart
There are 6 books and they are AMAZING! You have got to read these books. It makes you want to go out and get all of your food storage.

#5: Traitor by Sandra Grey
This book is set during the war with Hitler and Germany. I don't know why, but I love books set in this time in history. It is a very exciting book with a great story line!

#6: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
I have never read Sci-Fi. That is until Ender's Game. Wow, what a good book! This book takes you into a place I definitely have never been before and the ending is mind-boggling. I loved, loved, loved this book!!! It was so dang interesting. Read this book.

#7: Many books by Jude Deveraux
Ok, so the name of the book isn't many books, I just wrote that cause there's like 36 that she's written. I've only read two so far. The first I picked up at the pool at Excalibur in Vegas like a year ago. There were only two choices at the pool snack stand. Return to Summerhouse, and this other book. Return to Summerhouse sounded lame, so I got the other one. 3 pages into it, after it had sworn like 50 times I decided I wasn't wasting my time, so I got Return to Summerhouse, by the above author. This is a book I couldn't put down, and the thing is, she's not like an amazing writer, and sometimes she has some really cheesy parts in the book, yet I loved it and couldn't put it down. Then, having no idea that this author is a New York Times bestseller, I needed a book on my last vacation when we were staying at the Marriott by Disneyland, and found "Secrets" in the hotel gift shop, recognized the author and couldn't put this book down either! So now I'm on the hunt for many other books by her. Like I said, you may read these books and think "Oh Shaylee."But I'm a sucker for love stories and both of these books had love stories intertwined in them.

#8: The Host by Stephanie Meyer
I'm amazed at how many people that are obsessed with Twilight haven't read this book. It is so good!!! I loved Twilight, but holy cow I loved this book. I don't know which one I like more. Well....I take that back. Twilight has a special place in my heart. But The Host is really really good!

So there's my book info for those of you that are looking for a good book to read. Let me know if you have any good reads!!!

California! and Vegas

A couple weeks ago we went down to Californa for Justin's spring break to see his family. We stayed with them for the weekend then stayed at the Marriot by Disneyland for a couple nights. It was a much needed break from life! We went to the Orange County swap meet which I absolutely loved! I love stuff like that. I got a cute purse and shoes and Justin got some good shoes too. Then we went to Disneyland! We LOVE Disneyland!!

My absolute FAVORITE ride at California adventure!

Waiting in line for the Haunted Mansion...another favorite! Me, Justin and his sister Megan.

Me and Megan, pumped for Tower of Terror!

So Justin has a lemon tree at his house and I love it. His family probably thinks I'm weird that I'm so obsessed with it. I just love fresh grown fruit, period, and especially fruit that's not grown in Utah. These lemons were so so tasty! You could eat them raw. So we picked a bunch on a lovely Sunday afternoon and made lemonade! It was so good! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Here I am enjoying the lush fragrance of the lemon blossoms!

So to break the 11 hour drive up, we stopped in Vegas for a night with the Valletta's, good friends from our ward. I swear, Dan and Justin are a match made in heaven. They definitely fuel eachother's craziness which makes it very interesting and fun to hang out. Here they are sitting patiently on the floor like good little boys at the M&M factory waiting for the 3D movie.

Random posing by the boys.

Here we are witht the adorable Coca-Cola Bear! It was actually kinda creepy cause his eyes blinked and he could open and close his mouth and smile! I'm trying to kiss him, but I just ended up looking very out of place.....

Another pose by the boys on top of the Stratosphere.

Thanks Dan and Alisa for letting us crash your Vegas party for a night!

Still running behind!

Ok, isn't this the cutest little boy? This is Ledger my nephew, Cory and Cortney's new baby. This was at his baby blessing a couple weeks ago.

Sushi party!!!! My sister Kami had the best idea ever! To make our own sushi! She made the delicious rice and we went to town! We had tons of vegetables cute up, ginger, wasabi, cream cheese, soy sauce, crab, even eel and eel sauce! They were so yummy!!!

Here's Justin making sushi....sideways

Here are some final rolls. They were seriously restaurant quality! Loved them. We will definitely do it again sometime.

Runnin Behind!

Oh man! I am so behind with our life update. This was a couple weeks ago. A friend of Justin's from work apparently has the hook-ups to concerts. At least to country concerts. A friend of theirs works for a country station and so always has extra tickets to concerts. So the day of, they invited us to go to Rascal Flatts with Jessica Simpson opening for them down in Salt Lake. It was so much fun!

Ok, so not the best pics of Jessica, but it was so wierd seeing her. Just because you see her all the time in magazines and what not, and it was just surreal seeing her in real life. I really am not a fan of her as a person, I think she's a little bit of an idiot, but I do think she is beautiful! And she actually was a really good singer. I have to admit I was impressed. And she has awesome, awesome legs!!!! Although you can't see the rest of her body, her outfit from the waist down was a bit tacky. She had on daisy duke shorts (way short!) with these ginormous clunky shoes! I had no idea how she was walking in them.

And here are Rascal Flatts. The stage was awesome and I just love rascal flatts and they put on a stellar show!

Here we all are! Next to me is Lesley with her husband Cameron. They are the ones that hooked us up. And the two in the back are their friends. It was definitely a blast!