Vote for our car!

Thanks to everyone who has already voted on our car poll! But if you vote for other, you should let us know what you suggest! :)

Thanks!!

Carmax or Car-min?

We are trying to sell our truck. I don't want to sell the truck, but the high gas prices are absolutely killing us, we really have no other option. A lot of people are surprised to find out that the truck was actually mine before Andrew and I were married. It is my little (big) baby. It is the first truck that I purchased myself. I never thought I was a truck girl, but from the moment I was given a truck as a rental while my car was in the shop, I knew I was hooked. I bought the truck after I had graduated from college. I think it was some sort of statement of my independence. I absolutely do not regret buying it. In Utah the truck completely makes sense. Here in California, not so much. I can never find a parking spot and driving down the narrow lanes of the 110 scares me to death. When we first moved here we knew we would eventually have to get rid of it. Last year we bought a little vino scooter to try and help out. I love the scooter. It is easy to park, it gets 90 miles to the gallon and it's fun to drive. While the scooter has helped out a little bit, we have realized that it really is time to sell the truck.

Anyway, now to the point of this post ... we have been trying to find out what we can get for the truck. Unfortunately nobody wants to buy a truck right now. We researched the blue book value of the truck and headed off to the dealerships ready to make a deal. We had heard from everyone that carmax was definitely the best place to go. We got there and the salesman gave us the big speal about how they do their business. They then took the truck and we waited for over 3o minutes to get our appraisal. Andrew spent his time drooling over the 2004 BMW 3 series something or anothers. They finally came back with their offer. I have to admit that I have never wanted to punch someone in the face as much as I did this guy. Their offer was $10K less than blue book value! The salesman tried to justify it, but quickly handed us our keys, knowing we would never consider it. I don't think I will ever go back to that place again.

We are quickly learning that nobody is going to give us the complete value of the truck (priceless to me!). We are now just weighing our options and trying to figure out what the best option for us is right now. We will probably end up driving it out to Utah where we can get a little more for it. In the meantime we are also busy looking at options of new cars to buy. We clearly want something with great gas mileage. You can take a look at our poll to the right and vote on what you think we should get, or if you have any other suggestions please comment!! (no BMW's or Mini-Coopers Andrew!!)

Goodbye little fish

I have sad news. Yesterday when I went to feed the fish, my little fish was down hiding in the rocks again, but this time she didn't wake up. It was a sad day, but we gave her an appropriate burial and said goodbye. If you didn't read my earlier post about my fish you can click here. Andrew's fish has already taken over the entire tank, it's almost as if he doesn't even notice she's gone. Goodbye little fish ... you will be missed (by me at least!)

Splish Splash!

I have the cutest nieces and nephews. They are absolutely adorable. I don't get to see them very much because they live so far away, but I get to see pictures and sometimes talk to them on the phone. I just got some new pictures and I just had to post them so you could all see how truly cute they are.

This is Rachel. She must really love her hat and mittens!

Here is Kadin, Kaylee and Rachel. They had been playing in the drinking fountain and then the mud.

Here is Kaylee and Rachel trying to talk themselves into going on the slip and slide at grandma's house. (we were never allowed to have a slip and slide growing up because it would ruin the lawn ... amazing what parents wont do, but grandparents will!)

This has to be the most adorable face ever!!



There is also JJ, who lives even more far away! Hillary has her own blog with lots of cute pictures of him. You can check it out here.

And the winner is ...

I just wanted to remind everyone that I called it ... I said that it would come down to a battle of the David's and that David Cook would be the next American Idol ... and he is!! I know many of you are Archuleta fans, but I'm a huge David Cook fan. I think he is unique and extremely talented. I think his voice has a certain edge to it that I enjoy listening to. I also think that he is a very humble person. He took criticism very well and used it to become better. Don't get me wrong, David Archuleta also has an amazing voice, very Josh Grobanish. But I think overall David Cook is the right choice!

To my adorable 5 year old niece, Kaylee, who called me after the show to tell me good job, but couldn't talk because she had to "get the tears to dry out of her eyes," and my 7 year old nephew, Kadin, who was so upset that he "felt so sick," I am so sorry. For you two alone I wish that David Archuleta had won. But just remember that sometimes it is better to take 2nd place than 1st. (Ever heard of Ruben Studdard? ... No? ... Exactly my point!) You two are adorable and when David Archuleta has a concert you can be certain that I will take you!

Now, next post topic ... should 5 and 7 year olds be watching reality television? ... :)

I am IRON MAN....

First off, I'd like to plug my buddy Tom's blog. He posted his own review of Iron Man last week, and it was genius. Especially after seeing the movie...

My buddy Cory and I, after a healthy dose of Lego's Star Wars on the Wii (I'll review that too after I've played it some more...) headed over to Paseo Colorado and watched Iron Man. It was outstanding. Seriously. This movie is up in the Pantheon of comic inspired films. It's a hard line to walk when creating one of these films, people often get too artsy, when really I'm there to watch things blow-up, cool cars and cute girls.

Let's go over the list of the pluses of the movie first:

Explosions: Iron Man delivers some serious explosions. He blows up a tank, whoops up on some terrorists and generally lets loose. Perhaps the best scene was Iron Man making his way across the world to some small town in the middle east and pounding on the local terrorists. Anytime one shows off strength by reaching through a wall and pulling the antagonist through it. That's sweet.

Cool Cars: Iron Man's alter ego, Tony Stark, just so happens to be as rich as Batman, but a whole lot smarter in the sciences. With these said riches, Tony has purchased some excellent rides. Especially the Audi he rolls around town in.

Cute Girls: Pepper Potts. Nice.

Rock Music: I was a little disappointed that the closing version of Iron Man did not feature the vocals of Ozzy Ozbourne, but overall I loved Iron Man's rock music. Anything that utilizes Audio Slave...I'm a fan.

Overall...I recommend Iron man.

Happy Birthday Margaret!

We just wanted to wish Andrew's little sister, Margaret, a very happy birthday today! She is turning 12!! We wish we could be there to celebrate with you. We love whenever we get to spend time with PJ!!

Cupcakes!

I love cupcakes! I have never been a huge fan of cake, but I love cupcakes. With a cake, you only get a piece, and you have to decide whether you want a corner piece with lots of frosting, or the middle piece with all the candy pieces on it. With a cupcake, you get the whole thing! Lucky for me, cupcakes have become the new "it" thing around here. I am starting to see cupcake shops show up everywhere. And after watching "Cupcake Week" on Martha Stewart I decided that I had to try every cupcake that was featured on her show. Last weekend I got the chance to try one of them.

I had a swim meet in Santa Monica on Saturday. I remembered that one of the cupcake shops was in Santa Monica, Vanilla Bake Shop. Andrew and I went there and it did not dissapoint. It was a cute little shop full of people buying cupcakes for Mother's Day. While there I couldn't just pick one cupcake, so I bought a lot of them. They had both regular sized cupcakes and "cupcake babies" which were just smaller (so cute)!

The cupcake that was featured on Martha Stewart was the Meyer Lemon Raspberry. It was full of deliciousness!Their Mother's Day cupcake was the dark chocolate strawberry. yummmmmm!In addition to those two we also had the Southern Red Velvet (my favorite), Bittersweet Dark Chocolate, Black & White, Key Lime, Spicy Carrot, and the Toasted Dark Chocolate Coconut. I definitely enjoyed them!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Even though I am not a mom, Andrew still likes to treat me special on Mother's Day. (Well, he treats me special everyday, but I like what Megan said ... this is one day that I don't have to feel guilty about it.) The morning started out great with Andrew making me a delicious breakfast before we went to Church.

Church was wonderful. Our ward has a tradition of giving all women the day off. The men take over all the callings and do all the work. I think that is so great of them and I really appreciated it. I was asked to go in for opening exercises of Primary to just make sure that they had everything they needed. It was great to see the men step up and do such a great job. I know the kids loved it! I was able to go to Andrew's Sunday School class which was something I don't ever get to do. I then went to Relief Society and had a great lesson. It was a nice break, but it also made me grateful for my calling ... I missed being in primary and have to admit that I felt a little out of place with all the adults.

Andrew then began to make dinner. We invited Jessica over because Cory was in the middle of his dental board exams that day. I couldn't decide on just one thing that I wanted for dinner, so Andrew was nice enough to make all of them!

We had a delicious dinner of roasted tomato soup, fettucine with both alfredo and marinara sauce, beet salad, grilled asparagus, grilled chicken and breadsticks. Yummy!!

Jessica insisted on bringing something over so she made this amazing strawberry dessert. It tasted like homemade icecream!

I hope everyone had as great a Mother's Day as I did! Happy Mother's Day to my mom and mom-in-law! You two are amazing and we appreciate everything you do for us!

My Fish

Andrew and I have two beta fish. The first fish we had were from our wedding. We had fish as part of our decorations for our reception. We kept two of them and we had them for quite awhile. We have a fish tank that is separated in the middle to keep the two beta fish from attacking each other. One day Andrew left the lid off the tank and his fish ("Alex Smith") jumped over the divider and began attacking my fish ("Cosmo.") Andrew thought it was only appropriate that his Red fish representing the "U" beat up my blue "BYU" fish. Well that was basically the end of my fish. Andrew's died shortly after.

It took me awhile to get over that loss but finally we decided to get two new fish. Lately my fish has given me quite a few scares. It likes to bury itself in the rocks at the bottom. Even when I tap lightly on the tank it still doesn't move. Only when I shout loudly and shake it does it finally move and give me a bad look for waking her up. I thought I would share a picture.

Run Andrew Run!

Andrew is a runner. He loves to get up way too early in the morning and go running. I don't completely understand his obsession with running because I never liked to run (I quit gymnastics when I was 5 because they made me run around the gym one time!) Anyway, Andrew has run in quite a few races the past few months that I thought I would share with you.

This race was Andrew's first half marathon! I was so proud of him for reaching this goal. It was the first annual Rose Bowl Half Marathon. I went and saw him run past me at one point in the race and took these pictures.

Here he is after the race with his medal that he won. He finished in a time of 1.46:58 and took 7th in his division!

Andrew then ran the "Race for the Cure." It was a 5k. He ran in memory of Annette's friend Cindy Jenks and in celebration of his grandma, Pat Jarvis. He took 5th in his division with a time of 20:03.
There are two races that I don't have pictures for. The first was the "Reggae Run for Mental Health". It was a 10K and his time was 45:16 and he took 3rd in his division! The second was our ward "Beat the Bishop" 5K. Andrew was the only person in our ward that actually did beat the bishop! Way to go Andrew!

The last race that Andrew ran was actually in San Francisco. It was a 5k for cancer research. It was at a beautiful location, just next to Golden Gate Recreation Park. I took this picture with him before the race because I don't stand that close to him after he runs! :)

Here's the group of people for the start.
Great picture of that guy in the middle stretching!

And they're off!
This is Andrew pretending to finish ...
And this is him actually finishing. He finished with a time of 20:07!
This is why I don't run!

I'm so proud of him for working so hard at something that he loves!

Escape to Alcatraz. San Fran Trip: Part 4

I had already been to San Francisco a couple different times, but I had never been out to Alcatraz. Being a complete history nerd, I was so excited to go out there and take a tour. We took a ferry out there. We were lucky enough to go out on a beautiful clear day. This is the lighthouse and one end of Alcatraz.
It was pretty windy on the top floor of the boat out there, but I wanted to sit up there so we could see everything.

This is the first building you see when you get there. This is the apartment building where the prison guards families lived. I'm not sure if I would want to raise my family on an island with a prison.
This is a sign from when the Native American Occupation of the island took place.
This is Andrew and I with our headsets for the tour. It is an audio tour that you take while you walk around. I was pretty cold so I was wearing Andrew's "Mr. Rogers" sweater.
These pictures are of the room where the prisoners would have first gone into. They would have had to turn in all of their personal belongings and would then be given their prison clothes. Then there is the showers.

Here's a picture of the cells. It reminded me of "Prison Break." (good show!)
How would you like to spend all of your time in this little cell?
Oh no!! We are locked in! Let us out!!
Here's a picture of the famous inmates: Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, Robert Stroud, etc.
This is an isolation cell. It is completely dark inside.

This was the library for the inmates. Reading was one of the only fun things that they got to do.
There are still marks on the ground from the missiles that were fired in to the prison when the prisoners were holding the guards hostage.

This is where they could visit with friends and family that came to see them. Very small openings.
These next pictures are from the cell of one of the 3 men that escaped from Alcatraz. You can see the fake dummies that they put in their beds to fool the guards, then you can see where they dug out of their cells, and then the walls that they had to go through. Their bodies were never found, and they are assumed to have drowned.

Isn't this a great picture? This is the picture that they took of us before we got on the ferry to go over there. It was obviously behind a fake backdrop. I wasn't going to pay for the picture, so I just took a picture of the picture. Andrew was so embarrassed!


If you haven't ever been to Alcatraz then I definitely recommend it. I thought it was absolutely fascinating.

Random places. San Fran Trip: Part 3

Here are some more pictures of the places that we went while we were in San Francisco.

We spent an afternoon at Pier 39 on Fishermans Wharf. I love to go watch the seals there. I think they are so funny. They have such a relaxing life there on the pier.


Here is a picture of Andrew and I with the city in the background. It's such a cool city!
Here's us at the entrance of Pier 39.

Here is some pictures at the end of the pier, looking into the bay. Absolutely beautiful!

We went to Coit Tower. This is a picture taken from there, and a picture of Coit Tower. It is a great place to get a good view of the whole city.

The last day that we were there my parents and I drove over to the other side of San Francisco. This is a picture of the beach there. It was too cold to go swimming though!

This is Grace Cathedral. Very beautiful.
Entrance to the Palace of Fine Arts. It was closed, but the outside was beautiful.
China Town.


San Francisco is such a cool city! We had so much fun. I didn't get any pictures of Golden Gate Bridge. We did drive across it and went to the little town of Sausalito. It's a cute little town, kinda like the Beverly Hills of San Francisco. My parents lived just outside of San Francisco (Concord) when they were first married, so it was a lot of fun to be there with them and to hear about all of the places that they would go to when they lived there. They both worked in the city, so we were able to see the buildings that they worked in. We also drove out to Alameda to go to a little restaurant, Acapulco, where they would go to. Fun, fun trip!