Tyson, the Amazing Photographer

Oooh, look at all that sparkly prettiness :)
They are so pretty!
Where icicles come from!
My awesome mom. Yeah, she is cooler than yours.

It had snowed for a while so all the structures looked like tons of jellyfish!










I am trying very hard to see..






Ah, the ice castles :)

2/14-2/20

I am so behind that I actually have to put the dates in the title. Oops! This week was really fun. Tyson and I spoiled ourselves a little. We both got our taxes filed and so we went a little crazy! We have been wanting a TV in our room for a while and we finally got a 42" Insignia flat screen and a new Blu Ray player! The new player is a touch screen which for some reason I find ridiculously entertaining. I am so excited! We also got new Bluetooth headsets because mine is so old and ready to bite the dust. Its crackly on both ends and just wasn't working. We got a really good deal on newegg.com and it was way cheaper than buying them in the store. I was so happy when I got mine! It has a shiny checker pattern on it. Now all we need is a new washer and dryer and kitchen table and we will have replaced all of the furniture in our apartment and a lot of the kitchen stuff! We are very fortunate!

Monday was Valentine's Day and my next door neighbor Hannah came over to make the lingerie cookies. We had so much fun and I was amazed that I was able to keep it a secret! We had a great time and spent hours perfecting our cookies and getting covered in gooey frosting. I cleaned the apartment so that Tyson wouldn't have to stress about it and he started laughing when he got home and I showed him the cookies! He showed up with not one but two bouquets of flowers for me! We went to Target and got season 1 of Castle which was my Valentine's present to him. He raves about it and so I had to get it and see what it was all about. We got Noodles and Company and escaped the craziness of the restaurant section of town and settled in to watch some episodes :) I absolutely love that show now! We ended up finishing the first season in 3 days! When the last episode ended it was 11:00 at night and I was totally ready to run to Wal-Mart and get the second season. We ended up buying it the next day and are still watching episodes. It is so good and Nathan Fillion is my favorite actor!

Tuesday I went to hang out with my mom and treat her to dinner and a movie. We ate at the theater and watched Gnomeo and Juliet. I loved it! There were a lot of Shakespearean jokes and it was a really cute show. We had a good time watching the movie and then chatting at her house for an hour. I wish I lived closer! That night when I got home Tyson helped me do my taxes while I was working. I'm getting $2,400 back! Yay! Now I can do a bunch of stuff that I have been putting off like replacing the timing belt in my car.

On Wednesday we picked Tirza up and Tyson loved my sugar cookies so much that he wanted me to make more because they were already gone! Tirza helped me make the dough and the frosting. She loves to help me cook and it is so much fun cooking with her! We had to decorate fast because we only had her for 3 hours and we ended up getting her home late because of that and it was snowing really bad.

Saturday I decided that I was going to surprise my family and take them to the Midway Ice Castles. We have never been and I found the article online about it. They are only going to be open one more week so we had to go soon. I told them we were going to Main Street in Park City and then were going to a surprise and they had to dress warm. We met them in Park City and looked at a really cool art gallery. The photographer is old school and does all of his stuff with film cameras and light. There are no effects or anything added. It was awesome! We went to Main Street Pizza and Noodle for dinner and it was so good! We had a good time hanging out and talking. Afterward we navigated carefully through the terrible weather to Midway. Marissa and Wesley were in my car and it was very satisfying to hear the "Ooooh" from the back seat as we pulled up. The ice castles were amazing! They were so beautiful and we got a ton of pictures. We were walking on packed snow and they provided ski poles for clumsy people like me so that we don't fall and die. I didn't think I needed one but Tyson picked one up and a few minutes later asked me to "hold" it and I had it almost the entire time. He's watching out for me! We played the dots game in the snow with the holes the ski poles made and at the end Brandon carved himself a little bubble in the snow. Tyson added a bubble on and connected them :) It was way fun! There was my mom, Gerilynn, Marissa, Wesley, Brandon, Tyson and me. I was so glad that everyone had the night free and we were able to go. It was so much fun. The castles were so beautiful and I recommend that everyone go!! We got to meet Brent, the guy who built them, and talk to him for a bit. I know from reading his blog that they make the icicles from sprinklers dripping on what look like bleachers and then they add them on to the castle. The entire structure is made out of ice. Brent was really nice and told us about the process. By the exit were pictures people had taken there and there was a wedding announcement with a picture of the couple in front of the ice! There was a ring picture of the couples wedding rings sitting on the ice. It was way cool! We had a really good time and then slid down the canyon. The weather was awful and the snow had built up on the freeway. We pretty much slid most of the way down. My mom stopped when I didn't expect her to and I was sliding right for her and I was so afraid I was going to hit her! Luckily we made it out of the canyon unscathed but I had to pull over and give my nerves a rest before driving home! It was a very fun day and I was so glad that my family enjoyed the ice castles as much as I did.

http://brentsicecastle.blogspot.com/

http://www.utahicecastles.com/

Sunday morning Marissa and Wesley came up and they helped us get the TV from Best Buy. Tyson got called into work so he headed out and we went to church. We got pizza for lunch and watched the 60th anniversary edition Blu Ray of Alice in Wonderland. After it was over Wesley looks over at me and goes "That is the weirdest movie I have ever seen!" Ah such a good show. We hung out on the couch and talked because we were all comfortable in our pajamas and didn't want to move. We headed to Best Buy to pick up the Blu Ray player that Tyson had ordered while at work. We then got ice cream at Cold Stone which is one of my favorite activities :) I was going to come to Sandy because Tyson worked all night and then had to get up early in the morning to go back but then I realized that everyone was working pretty much. We went to get Tyson's car from the car (it had gotten an oil change) and I was going to drive it home. We had to jump the battery because it was dead and I eventually made it back home. I spent the rest of the night setting up the new equipment so that Tyson wouldn't have to do it after his long shift. I watched Netflix until he got home and didn't do much because I had a migraine. He was very happy to see it set up! It was a good night and we got to spend time hanging out instead of putting it together.

Oh and one more thing- Happy Birthday Evelyn! She is the cutest 3 year old around and I miss her so much!

This week was pretty fun and we survived Tyson working the evening shift! He was scheduled Sunday through Thursday working 2 pm to 12 am. It was hard not seeing him and I was very glad when he was done for the weekend! On Sunday I went to my family's and hung out for the Super Bowl. It was pretty fun and it was nice seeing everyone. It made me very happy that everyone loved my salsa! I felt bad that Tyson had to work so I was sending him updates of the game.

On Monday I went to Sandy and visited with my mom. We went out for frozen yogurt and then went to Feng's Fine Chinese Dining. Brandon was doing the Lionhead dance and he was the Buddha! Basically the story goes that Buddha trained the lion and so they do a half hour dance where Buddha starts by waking up the lion by tapping him on the head with his fan. Buddha guides him around the restaurant and the lion 'eats' donations given by the children in colorful envelopes. There is also the lucky lettuce. There is a head of lettuce hanging from the ceiling and the lion snatches it up. He shreds it in his mouth and then throws it in 3 different directions. It is considered good luck if you are hit by the lettuce. The Lionhead dance is considered a blessing on the restaurant and they went around the outside of the restaurant and peeked in the windows. Brandon said that was the best part because he could yell directions to the lion and no one could hear! After he did the dance he ate with us and the food was really good! It was awesome to see Brandon do this and I want to go to all of his performances!

Tuesday I stayed home because Tyson was working and everyone was busy. It was okay because I got some stuff done and we figured out how to video chat so we could talk face to face while he was gone. Wednesday and Thursday I got to spend more time with my neighbor Hannah and we had so much fun! We haven't really hung out much alone and this was the perfect opportunity. On Wednesday Hannah made a delicious dinner of chicken, sweet potatoes (my first time having them in anything other than fry form) and green beans. She put Madelyn to bed and we were going to finish the Sorcerer's Apprentice that she started with me and Tirza a few weeks ago but we ended up talking for 2 hours! We talked about parenting and religion and it was a really good conversation. I've been reading Parenting with Love and Logic and so we were talking about it because she's read it too. We had so much fun and I really didn't want to work! The next day we went to the resident activity and snacked on treats with Madelyn. Not many people showed up so there were only 3 names in the drawing for the $50 gift card for dinner for 2 on Valentine's Day. I WON! I was so happy I was jumping up and down. Tyson and I were trying to save for the furniture and things that we wanted so we decided to not do much for Valentine's Day this year. Now we could go out to dinner! I couldn't wait to tell him! We went to Noodles and Company for dinner and we were talking about wanting to do more crafts. We both wanted to learn how to sew and we decided to go to Michael's and look around at what they had. While we were eating Hannah told me about a blog she saw where the person made lingerie cookies. I told her I'd seen the same one! We went to Michael's and got most of the stuff we needed for the cookies and some adorable heart and pearl sprinkles. We are going to make them on Valentine's Day while the guys are working :)

Friday was Tyson's first day off and we picked up Tirza. We hung out with Brandie and Page and actually had them come over to our place for the first time since the Christmas party! It was fun chatting with them because we haven't seen them in a while. We ended up going to their house because poor Lucas was teething and needed medicine and his bed. Brandie and I picked up ice cream for everyone and then we watched The Proposal and talked about weddings while the guys ran an errand. It was fun and I can't wait to plan my wedding and get married!

Saturday Tyson and Tirza went with his family to see his grandparents. I've had a horrible time trying to sleep in the last week and I'd only had 3 hours by the time they left. I slept and then ran a few errands until they got home. We went to Brandie's and played Last Night on Earth with Brandie, Page, Jared and Brandon. The zombie's won because they killed a lot of the heroes. Darn!

Sunday was awesome. We hung out at Brandie and Page's until we took Tirza home and then we went to Red Lobster with the gift card I'd won. We haven't gone yet because its pricey and Tyson doesn't really like seafood anyway. Brandon's wife Ashley works there so we finally got to see her and she was our waitress. She is the cutest girl ever! She was really sweet and the food was so good! I got the Seaport platter which had 2 kinds of wood grilled shrimp and 2 split lobster tails. Ashley was really nice and showed me how to get the meat out when she saw me looking at it bewilderedly. Tyson got a creamy potato soup and it was so good! I was so happy and full (and probably grinning like an idiot) and Tyson looked at me and said I was in a 'lobster coma'. It was a very nice night. We watched The A Team that we rented from redbox and it was really funny. I liked all the people in it and we had fun watching it and went to bed way too late!

We watched a few movies this week. Tyson and I finished The Departed which was awful. I'm going to ruin the ending because I hope no one ever watches it- everyone dies. There's a good guy who is a cop in with the mafia and a bad guy who is posing as a cop but he's in the mafia. They don't know who the other person is so they spend most of the movie trying to find out. It is so tense because you don't know who is going to win, the good guy or the bad guy. Well it ends up not mattering because most of the mafia people die (including the leader) and both moles die and a couple of cops and random people. In the end, only 2 main characters that they introduced (out of 15) survive. It was dumb and I hated it. Tyson thought it was ok and he's mad I ruined the ending. :) We watched a 4 episode series called Extreme Bodies on Netflix. There were episodes about dwarfism, giantism, extreme obesity and conjoined twins. It was really really cool. They did 3D scans of these people and you could see how their bodies worked. The conjoined twins one was my favorite. There was a 44 year old set of conjoined twins and they are joined at the head. There are only 6 sets of twins in the world who are connected this way and they are the oldest set of conjoined twins ever. It was so interesting! I highly recommend it. I watched Moulin Rouge which I hadn't seen since high school and I forgot how much I loved it! It is such a good show. Tyson bought Domino which I had never seen and it was really interesting. Its based on the true story of Domino Harvey, a bounty hunter played by Kiera Knightly. I loved it! I also watched The Proposal with Brandie which I've already seen but absolutely love. Its a way good chick flick and even Tyson liked it when we saw it together. That says something! It was a good week and an awesome weekend hanging out with my boy! I will post about Valentine's week in the next day or two.

Underwear Cookies!

I did these with my awesome neighbor Hannah and this is her daughter Madelyn!
My cookies!
The blue set reminds me of Superman
Close up! Hannah has a fancy camera that can do super close ups.

Hannah's cookies. She is way more creative than I am!

Her underwear sets!

SWAK!

I always have to post my pictures separately but it seems kind of silly to just post one picture. However, this picture is awesome so it is worth it.

This has been a good week filled with visits and games with lots of family and friends. On Monday we played Alhambra with Brandie and Josh. Josh won with Tyson in a close second and I got last place. On Wednesday our awesome neighbors popped by and invited us over to play games. We played Beyond Balderdash and it was a lot of fun! We had a good time reading the insane definitions that were true. I bet you didn't know that a zobo is a cross between a zebra and a yak! There was also snood (a hairnet), cannelure (the groove around the rim of a bullet) and titbow (a haze which occurs on very hot days). It was a fun game and I highly recommend it! We also had Jared, Robbie and Tyson's brother Brandon over on Friday night. Brandon was insistent on playing Life so we did. It was a lot of fun and half the guys found sunken treasure and got $500,000 from one square! We had a good time joking around and Jared had so many kids that he ran out of space in his car and had to stack the pegs between the existing ones! It was so much fun and Tyson and I were very close but I ended beating him by $150,000. Also we were the only ones who finished the game with no kids! I hope he knows that I don't want it to be that way in real life! The best part was that Tyson had 'entertainer' as his job and he became a grandparent- with no kids. He's got some 'splaining to do!

We finally finished Big Bang Theory this week! I am so happy! Now I have to wait another year for season 4 to come out on DVD. We have had The Departed from Netflix since New Year's and we finally started it- only to get bored and stop halfway through. Hopefully we will get to finish it this week! We also started The Great Mouse Detective with Tirza but had to take her home before we could finish. I wasn't feeling so great this week and thought I might be coming down with something so I watched a few movies on my shifts instead of being super productive. I watched Ballerina which was on Netflix and is about 5 dancers in Russia and it has a little bit of Russian ballet history mixed in. I love ballet and it was so much fun to watch this documentary! I hope I can find other dance ones on Netflix. I also watched Food, Inc which was recommended by Brandie. I thought the legislation was interesting and Tyson and I had a good discussion about it. I also watched Maxed Out which is about the country's debt, personal debt and bankruptcy. It was really good and totally fascinated me. I guess I picked the right field!

Tyson and I got some new movies this week after, I kid you not, 3 trips to Best Buy. We were trying to get Alice in Wonderland 60th anniversary edition in the Blu Ray combo pack and Best Buy had the best price. They didn't have it on Tuesday so we went to Wal-Mart and the sales guy didn't even know what we were talking about. We went up there Wednesday and they did not have it but said they would get shipments this week. I kept calling and they never had it so we went up on Saturday to get the rain check. We also got some Blu Rays on sale- Constantine, Domino and Hitman. On Tuesday when it was absolutely frigid out we were running errands trying to find the movie. We got home and took a while to thaw out!

Thursday was a really fun day for me. I got to help my mom clean the basement a little bit more and now the downstairs living room is clean is addition to the laundry room. It looks amazing! Marissa helped and we got to hang out at Noodles and Company after. A girl I work with has a relative that does craft projects. I signed up and decorated my own SWAK (sealed with a kiss) wood cutout. I painted it, glitterized it (I love glitter!!) and then glued some rhinestones and bows on it. I am all girl! It wasn't expensive at all and it was a lot of fun to hang out with some of the girls from work.

So a few random things from this week. My car would shake when on the freeway like it was going to DIE so I took it to the shop. A tire balance later and it drives just fine. I got the rear brakes replaced too. Ouch. I also tried to paint my toes this week. I have usually gone with Jeanne and gotten pedicures but I wanted to save some money and do it at home. I now realize why pedicures were invented! I can barely see my toes much less paint them and after I was done I probably got more polish on my skin than my nails. From now on I will get a pedicure or see if I can talk someone in to painting them for me! I also got some new clothes this week. I have been super girly and I love it! I dragged Tyson with me because he is awesome at helping me shop. I used the gift card to Old Navy I got from his mom and we picked out some cute stuff. I ended up getting a long black shirt with a scoop neck and a ribbon detail on the left shoulder. I also got a green sweatershirt that had a pocket in front and a hood. It was so cute and its way comfy. I cleaned a ton of my clothes out of my closet that I loved but don't fit anymore. It felt good to take the old clothes out and put in my new shirts! I love shopping and can't wait to go again!

Ok, so I really suck at this posting on Sunday thing. My graveyard shift is usually when I type this and my grave on Sunday is my shortest shift of the week. I think I will try to post Tuesday morning because that is near the end of my longest shift! Tyson and I finally got phone cases for our phones which is great because I have been terrified that I'm going to drop mine! We got plastic ones with grips on the sides and they have a stand that pops out in the back. Its very handy for when I listen to music while getting ready or watching videos while I'm working. I also finally got my other phone case in the mail. Its a wallet and phone carrier. It flips open and has slots for cards on one side and a little sleeve on the other that I can slide my phone into. Its very handy for when I don't want to carry my purse! Also, something a little exciting this week- I went running! I do not run. I have not ever run. I was feeling antsy one day and decided I wanted to go walking and expel some energy. I went to the office of the apartment complex and got on the treadmill. I walked 2 laps and then decided I should probably jog. Since my surgery whenever I run I stiffen my leg because I'm used to protecting it and trying not to jar it. Basically I run like a retarded gimp. I wanted to get in the habit of running normally so I cranked it up and ran full out for half a lap! I was so happy! Now I know that I can run and I don't have to favor my leg. Yay! It was even fun and I think I might do it again. I also wasn't sore the next day and neither of my knees hurt! That is a very good thing because the next day was when I helped my mom clean the basement and I was going up and down the stairs a lot!

Tyson and I watched more Big Bang Theory this week. Surprise, surprise. We are almost done with the third season and I am pretty excited. I absolutely love this show but I am ready to watch new stuff! I watched Good Will Hunting on my graveyard shift and it was a really good movie. Everyone had an accent and they all sounded fake but it had a good story. We watched Barbie's Fashion Fairytale when we had Tirza this weekend and it was super cheesy but I loved the fashion in it! I also watched a couple of episodes of the Dresden Files while working and I like that series. I think it only had one season so I will have to watch the episodes slower to make it last!

On Wednesday morning last week I was browsing Facebook and got some depressing news. My friend Annette that had a class with me at the U had lost her 5 year old daughter. Maryn had been battling DIPG which is a tumor on her brain stem. Because of its location it is inoperable and she ended up passing away. I was so sad! She was a sweet little girl and I got to take her for a ride in my convertible a while ago. I can't imagine how hard that would be and I hope she knows Maryn is okay. She is probably hanging out with my dad and he is teaching her about dynamite! I went to the viewing Sunday night and it was so beautiful. It was in the cathedral at Juan Diego in Draper and they had tables full of pictures. There were candles and little shoes and her dresses from her dance class. Annette held it together better than I did. When I talked to her I cried and she was so sweet. She asked how I was and she said she thought I had gotten married. I told her not yet but I was getting closer! She hugged me and she was so awesome. Maryn was lucky to have her as her mom. Annette's blog is marynshope.blogspot.com.

I got to see a lot of people this week which always makes me happy! I got to see Nicole while we carpooled to a team meeting and it is always so much fun talking to her. I had dinner with Jeanne Thursday night and we went to Sweet Tomatoes and enjoyed catching up. Its been too long! On Saturday we went to Brandie and Page's son Lucas's birthday party at Classic Skating. It was a lot of fun getting to see all of Tyson's friends and Tirza had a blast because she loves Classic Skating. It was very nice and pretty relaxing. On Thursday I helped my mom clean out the laundry room in the basement. I took some stuff home that I didn't even remember her having down there and we got the baby toys she got for the grandkids put on the shelves. It is so nice having a ton of room down there! We finally got all the Christmas stuff put away and we will slowly clean the entire basement. On Sunday we hung out with Ty's parents since we haven't seen them in a while. We had lunch with his brother Brandon, his parents and us and Tirza at Famous Dave's and then Brandon had to go to work. We went to Menchie's and got frozen yogurt and it was sooo good! I'm definitely going there again. We went to their house and played games and relaxed until we had to take Tirza home. It was a lot of fun!

I got to see my family a lot this week. I saw my mom on Thursday and helped her clean. On Sunday after the viewing I met everyone at Marissa's apartment and we hung out for a few hours. We play Rummikub and I won (only because Rachel wasn't there to kick everyone's butts) and we had ice cream and brownie sundaes. They were yummy! It was nice getting to see my family 4 times in one week! On Saturday we went to Desert Star and saw Back From the Future (a spoof of Back To the Future). It was so funny! It is everyone's favorite so far. We got to take Tirza and I was so excited. Its fun to see how she gets into it and really enjoys herself. The best part of the show was when the crazy Doc uses Barbie and Ken dolls to show what would happen if they fail to get the Lagoon go cart up to 8 miles an hour by launching it down a ramp off the Provo clock tower. It was improv and we found out later that she gets certain things that she has to fit in to her monologue from the 2 other actors on the stage. She gets ready to push Ken in the go cart and she says "By the power of Chuck Norris's beard!" She lets go and he crashes at the bottom. Barbie slides down the ramp to save him. She tried to give him CPR and the Ken doll's head popped off and flew across the stage! It was awesome. The other guy was laughing so hard he couldn't say his lines! There were a lot of funny moments and we all had a really good time.

Overall this was a really good week. It was great getting to see a lot of friends and help my mom. I hope everyone had a great week too!