Princesses on Ice

I'm a few weeks late with this, but Rachel and I took Adria and her friend Joni to Disney Princesses on Ice. It was really fun! There were tons of little girls dressed as princesses and even some older girls and adults, too. I'm a fan of ice skating, so I really enjoyed it. It was amazing how they could ice skate in some of the costumes.

Here's Adria and Joni with 1 minute left! They were SO excited!

Here's the 2 little girls with the other princesses
Here's the 4 of us - Adria, Joni, Rachel and Me
There were 6 princess stories and then the last hour was the Cinderella story. It was hard to get good pics, so here's a few of the better ones.

Here's Prince Eric (from the Little Mermaid) fighting Ursula

Genie and Aladdin singing and dancing

Beast and Belle

Cinderella, the mice and Cinderella's fairy godmother

Cinderella making her grand entrance at the ball

All the princesses and their princes dancing at the ball - you can see Tinkerbell in the corner too

Here was the finale with all the princesses and princes lined up on the castle stairsAll in all it was a great time. I bought some over-priced cotton candy to enjoy during the show that also came with a mickey mouse crown. :) The girls had fun taking turns wearing it. Thanks to Rachel for scoring us such good seats! Hopefully we can go again when they're in town.

Mississippi

I took a week off of work and made a trip down to Mississippi to see my sister Becki, her husband Paul, and their daughter Natalie. It was a great trip!! My week went by way too fast though...it was hard to leave! Here's a few pictures of the 200 or so that I took. :) If you'd like to see more, I've got the majority of them posted on Facebook in an album. We did some sight-seeing, went to the beach, went bowling, went on a shrimp boat tour, went fishing a few times, and just enjoyed each others company. I also got to baby-sit Natalie on Saturday while Mommy and Daddy were working. All in all I had a great time and I'm hoping to make it a yearly trip!

Here's one of my first views of the Gulf Coast.

Here's the beach along Hwy 90 from the top of the Beau Rivage (one of the casinos).

Isn't she the cutest girl in the world?!?! She loves her swing.

Natalie and me as we were fishing - pretty sunset too!

This is a big blue crab that Becki caught one other day we were fishing. They're really strong guys - hard to reel in. She got this one up on the pier and then Paul grabbed it so we could take some pictures.

This was on our shrimp boat tour - our guide explained how they use the net and then he also showed us his catch. It was really neat!

Our catch - there was everything from shrimp to fish to a jellyfish and a sting ray. We got to see him feed the pelicans and seagulls too!

This is Shirley, the boat's pet pelican! You can see the fish in her mouth. She tends to be spoiled they told us......can't imagine why.

Here's a small video of the pet pelican Shirley getting some lunch.



We enjoyed a bit of time on the beach the day before I left. We hunted for seashells and enjoyed wading in the water. Here's a picture of me, Paul, Becki and Natalie enjoying the sun!

Me and cute little Natalie! She was so much fun!

Here's me in front of the Hurricane Katrina Memorial. The top of the marble is how high the tidal surges got during the hurricane. The case is filled with items donated by Katrina survivors. So much of the landscape is still missing. As you drive along Hwy 90, you see empty cement slabs, or 2 steps leading up to nothing, so much that was destroyed hasn't been rebuilt yet.

For Halloween Natalie was a killer bee and Becki and Paul were killer bee catchers.
What a cute little family!

Paul is big into Halloween and he loves to get dressed up and enter the Halloween contests. This year we went to one Friday and Saturday night, one at the Beau Rivage and another at the Hard Rock. Here's a picture of Paul (he's the Dark Lord from the movie Legends) and Becki dressed up to match. I'm a party pooper, so I didn't dress up at all. Unfortunately, Paul didn't win either contest, so that was a bummer.

Here's a video of Natalie 'crying.' She cries, but she also screams....it was cute at first....... :) We found out at her doctor appointment that she had an ear infection so I'm sure that was part of it. She was still pretty darn cute even with the screaming. And no, I'm not a mean Aunt, Becki was on her way to get her out of her carseat while I was taking this short video.

Here's another little clip of Natalie in her crib. I think she was teething again, so she likes to chew on everything. She's so darn cute!!!

Like I said earlier, it was a fun time!! I wish they lived closer so I could see them more often, but I'm glad I had the chance to make a trip down there and see their little corner of the world. Thanks for a great time guys!!

Girls Weekend!

My cousins, Alicia and Crystal, have an apartment up in Ogden, so I went up there for the weekend and we had great time hanging out and having fun!

Crystal and Alicia giggling as we're playing cards - we were ALL laughing sooo hard! We played '1st to 13', Pictionary, Cranium, Rummikub and laughed the whole time. Crystal made us a gourmet dinner and then we watched The Scarlet Pimpernel after enjoying milk and oreos, and chocolate. Crystal had to work on Saturday, so we all slept in till about 10 (it was wonderful!) and then Alicia and I played Xbox and lounged around, listening to the BYU game till Crystal got off work. Then we decided to take a hike up behind Weber campus.

View of Ogden from the trail

Along the trail that we took, they had signs for different exercises you could stop and do. So, me, being goofy, thought it would be funny to stop and get pictures of us doing the exercises. Towards the end of the trail, we looked at the sign and realized the copyright was like 1975.....too funny!

Here's a picture of me showing the "sit and reach" exercise

Me and Crystal demonstrating the "hop-kick" exercise

Alicia demonstrating the "hand-walk".....this one was waaay hard, and the railings were coming loose, so not the safest!

After our strenuous work-out we went to Beus Park and had a picnic dinner. There are ducks and geese (I think that's what they were) that love to have you feed them, so we fed them bread and then Sunchips once we were out of bread. Most of them didn't seem to like the Sunchips, but they went crazy for the bread.
Beus Park behind Weber campus

Ducks and other large creatures - as soon as we threw one piece of bread, they all started swarming us!!

This guy was kind of ugly - and they were very loud when they started squawking!

Me, Crystal, and Alicia

Sunset as we were driving home from the park

It was a really fun weekend and now that I know where they live, we'll have to make it a regular weekend thing as often as we can. Thanks for a great weekend girls!!

Wasatch Woman 5K

The Wasatch Woman 5K came a lot quicker than I thought it would. The race took place at Sugarhouse Park. The 5K (3.1 miles) went 2 times around the park....4 hills total. This was only the second time I've done a 5K and the first one with hills included, so my time was up a bit, but I am still really proud that I did it, and I wasn't the last one. :) It seemed more 'official' to me than my last one because we had bib numbers, got a t-shirt, and we were timed with timing chips from Stride Racing. My time ended up being 45:32, which equates out to 14:38 minute miles. 2 of my friends from work, Stacy and Angela were there with me. Neither of them are workout guru's but Stacy wanted to be there to support me and Angela likes to run and doesn't get to do it very often with her son, so she signed up as well. Even though it was tough, it was fun and a great achievement for me!

Here's my t-shirt and bib #

Stacy and me before the race

Stacy, Me and Angela before the race. I feel I should explain the cell phone looking bump....I didn't have any pockets and I needed my cell phone to find the other 2 before the race, and I've seen people keep their cells phones there, so I thought I'd try it....and it worked. :)

Stacy, me and Angela after the race....this was about 2 minutes after I crossed the finish line, which would explain why I'm beet red!! That tends to happen to me when I work out 'vigorously' :)

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Alicia and Crystal (my cousins for those of you who don't know) took me to the Scarlet Pimpernel at the Hale Centre Theatre for my birthday!! It was awesome!!! I had forgotten how much I love live theater because it's been quite a while since I last saw a production. I had never been to the Hale Theatre, and it was really cool! We were in the second row and the production was very well put together, props and costumes, both. I didn't know the story of the Scarlet Pimpernel, but now I definitely need to read the book as well as get the soundtrack, because the music was fantastic, too! I'm actually thinking about purchasing season tickets for 2010 as a Christmas present for myself :) (I know, I know, Christmas is a long ways away) If you're around the area, I would definitely recommend seeing a production at Hale Theatre.
Thanks Alicia and Crystal!!

Girls Day

For my birthday my friend Stacy took me out for a spa day. She treated me to a European facial and pedicure at Cameo. It was wonderful and relaxing. It was fun to spend the day with her!! I have been wanting to get my hair cut for quite a while, so I got it cut last Saturday while we were out and about. Then I picked out some color and Stacy dyed it for me. I love it!! I would post pics from our spa day, but I forgot my camera. :( So instead, here's a few pictures of my new cut.

I was modeling Stacy's shades and don't worry, this shirt wasn't what I wore out in public, I had an 'appropriate' shirt over it. :) I was just wearing it until I was all the way ready.

Happy Birthday to me!

Saturday was my birthday so I had the enjoyment of camping and white water rafting for my birthday. We got home from our trip Saturday afternoon. I had plans to go to Harry Potter with a friend, but then at the last minute, I changed my mind and went up to my sister's to hang out with them and somebody that Shawn works with. I hadn't seen them in a while, so it was good to catch up and get hugs and birthday wishes from my nephews and niece! Adria gives the best hugs!!

I got a home a little earlier than my roommate Shelley had planned on Saturday and it seemed they were trying to do something for my birthday as her youngest son, Parker said "Liz, come here, we have a surprise" and Shelley's in the kitchen trying to keep them both quiet :) So I let her know I was leaving for a while and I'd be back later after I was done at my sisters. I got home Saturday at about midnight and walk downstairs to find this.....

I got a gift card to Cafe Rio (my all time favorite Mexican restaurant) and Starbursts from Carson and Parker. They were so excited when they came home from church today to see me and the decorations, cause they got to help put the balloons up. So when I got home from church we tore down the balloons and then they were playing with those and then Glenn (Shelley's boyfriend) blew up some balloons so the boys could let them loose so they'd fly around and they were having a hey-day with those. Too cute!

On Wednesday night, my friend Stacy tricked me into thinking I was going to be looking at an apartment, but in all reality, some of my friends from work were there and surprised me. We grilled, had some good laughs, took a walk over to Memory Grove downtown and then came back for cake and ice cream. I would have pictures, but since I thought I was just checking out an apartment, I didn't take my camera. :)

All in all I had a great birthday this year, lots of fun!

Riding the Rapids

My singles ward had a super activity this past weekend and we went white water rafting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was a blast!!! We left on Thursday and got back Saturday, so it was kind of short, but we all had a fantastic time! Thursday it rained a bit and it was fairly cool on Friday, so our rafting trip was a bit chilly with the wind, but it was still awesome! We camped, cooked over the fire, and had a good time getting to know people and enjoying nature. We played games, sang songs, and a few friends and I took a trip through the field of sagebrush and 'hunted' buffalo. We actually just walked to see how close we could get to them......boys are silly is all I have to say on that topic :) I didn't get a lot of pictures, but here's a few of what I did get.

View of the Snake River as we headed into town...you can see one of the yellow rafts floating down

Morning scenery on Friday as we headed into town to go rafting

Large buffalo that we were trying to get close enough to see.....this was with a lot of zoom on my camera :) He was snorting a lot and sounded angry, so we (the girls) opted to stay away....though the boys got the closest.

Buffalo and the Grand Teton Mountains

Some of our tents and campsite - we had about 95 people that were in our group

The trailer everything was hauled in and our food prep/dining area

Fire that kept us somewhat warm in the frigid cold

Some of the girls did a fun dance and pulled the guys up to dance too

I thought this was a cool arch made out of antlers in downtown Jackson Hole

Now on to the really exciting part.....white water rafting! This was my first experience. I grew up canoeing on the Turkey River, but that's a little bit different than this. We went with a company called Mad River Boat Trips. They provided us with the rafts, gear, as well as guides on each raft.

We went in 2 different groups and my group was the 9 AM group. It was quite cold! A lot of people rented wetsuits, but I braved it and went without. They did offer us 'splash jacket's when we got down by the river and I wore one of those and am VERY glad I did. The temp on Friday morning was about 60 and the water temp was like 52 or something.....add wind into the equation and it's a bit chilly. We had 3 rafts that we took down, about 15-16 people in each. There were some funny guys on my raft, so they kept us entertained. Our guide, Kate, said the water was fairly low, but that if you were to come around the May timeframe, the rapids would be much much bigger. I think also if you go in a smaller raft, the rapids seem a bit more dangerous as well. We were on the river for about 3 hours, covering an 8 mile course. I've put a link, so click here for pictures of us going through the first rapids, "Big Kahuna." I'm towards the front of the boat on the left hand side, second in. You can see me pretty good in the first picture. It was really really fun and I'm definitely up for going again!