Vacation Destination #3: Marco Island, FL

I'm a little behind getting to this post but this trip was so great that it can't be forgotten.  At the end of August Kyle and I took off for a week of relaxation to Marco Island, Florida. This was our honeymoon spot so we were really excited to go back. Our daily schedule was pretty simple and consisted of the following:

1. Wake up
2. Walk to the beach
3. Lay on the beach
4. Repeat the next day

It was a pretty simple trip but we had a blast riding wave runners through the ocean, playing at the pool, falling asleep in the sun, trying new places for dinner, and just enjoying Kyle's last week of summer vacation. A special thanks for Allegiant Airlines who's $39 plane tickets made this trip possible. We hope to see you again Marco Island.

Vacation Destination #2: Nashville

The weekend after our trip to Indianapolis we took off to Nashville to see a Keith Urban concert. This was the first time either one of us had ever been to Nashville, and being the huge fan of country music that I am, I was pretty excited to see what it had to offer! We pulled into town and headed straight downtown to do some sightseeing before the concert. Our first stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was cool, to be honest, it didn't blow me away. Maybe if I was 40 years older it would have, but for the most part most of the people inside were way before our time. My favorite display was at the very end where they had a Brad Paisley suit and a Carrie Underwood dress on display from the 2010 CMA awards. There was a lot of Elvis stuff, they actually had one of his old cars he used to ride around in inside. I think that was one of Kyle's favorite displays. We plan to hit up the Hall of Fame again in 40 years when all of the country stars we know are in and I am sure we will feel much more clued in as to who everyone is.  After the Hall of Fame we were starving and needed to find some food before the concert. There is literally a bar with a live country band playing on EVERY corner. These are probably fun if you have had a lot to drink, but we just wanted to get out of the heat and get some food so we decided to pass on checking out any of the bands. Instead we found a Hard Rock Cafe and enjoyed a nice dinner there.  From there is was over to the concert where I had a GREAT time. I don't know how anyone could not love Keith Urban. I was nervous about how much Kyle would enjoy himself but he seemed to really have a good time too. It was a great show! 

The next morning we decided we needed to check out the Grand Ole Opry before we left town. I'm sure it would have been much more exciting had we been there to see a show, but for the most part it's a very nice auditorium where all the country music greats have played. It's nothing too thrilling when you are there just to look at it, but I plan to return to see a concert there someday. Our next stop was Vanderbilt University. This sounds random but Kyle has a fascination with college campuses and really wanted to check it out. He mostly just likes to check out their football stadiums to be honest but we cruised around the whole campus just for fun. Pretty cool, doesn't compare to BYU but not bad. After that we hit the road and headed home.

Vacation Destination #1: Indianapolis

We have finally kicked off our official summer vacations! We started with a quick weekend trip to Indianapolis where we met up with our great friends from Illinois, Jeff and Emily Savage. We met up Friday night for dinner where we all enjoyed some giant burgers and fries and then spent the evening playing in the hotel pool. We spent Saturday at the Indianapolis Zoo which turned out to be fantastic despite the heat and humidity that had us all sweating to death by the end of the day. This was my first trip to a zoo and I was extremely impressed, they had everything! Kyle's favorite of the day was definitely the monkeys (and we saw many different kinds), and I was quite fond of the giraffes. We re-hydrated that night at the Cheesecake Factory where we enjoyed half price desserts thanks to National Cheesecake Day! Thanks to Jeff, Emily, and Evangeline for a great weekend!

Summer Update

This Summer has been flying by and before we even realized we looked at the calendar and couldn't believe it is already the end of July! I don't know where the time is going, but we wanted to give a little update on what we have been doing to stay busy and have fun, and take our minds off of the suffocating humidity that we love so much! 

First up, I have finally dedicated myself to starting a scrapbook. I have made this commitment before and it has lasted all of a couple days before I was bored and decided it wasn't for me, but when I see my mom and sister's amazing scrapbooks I get so jealous I finally committed for good this time! So far so good, I have done three pages, usually I do one every Sunday afternoon, and I must say I'm pretty proud of how it is coming together. I figure by posting about it that will add some accountability because now people know about my commitment. So when you see me make sure to ask me how my scrapbook is coming so I feel the pressure not to quit!

Our Anniversary Page

Another fun thing I have done this summer was spend a day at Churchill Downs on Millionaires Row! It was a work outing so sadly Kyle wasn't there. It was an absolutely beautiful day! Millionaires Row is six floors up so we stood on a balcony to watch the races which is a MUCH better view than on the ground because you can see the entire track and see the whole race! I think I ended up down $4 on the day, but I managed to snap a few good pics.

The track is so pretty, roses everywhere

Kyle of course has been keeping busy with lacrosse, which he keeps busy with all the time but in the summer he actually laces up those cleats and gets out there and plays. Of course he had to sign up for two leagues, because one just isn't enough, so he has been out on the field quite a bit and I have enjoyed watching him.

Finally, we had a GREAT 4th of July weekend despite me actually having to work on the 4th. We went to the Red River Gorge in Slade, Kentucky with some of our great friends. We stayed in an awesome cabin and spent the weekend hiking, playing Mario Kart, hot tubbing, roasting smores, observing all types of wildlife that I hope to never see again, and killing bug, after bug, after bug, after bug.....

Our fantastic cabin, literally in the middle of nowhere

Was I scared? No way

Never ending Mario Kart battles

Beautiful view from the top of the lift, we hiked back down. This mountain severely humbled many of us when two hours later we still had not reached the bottom.

Stay tuned because August will bring a Keith Urban concert during our first trip to Nashville as well as a week on the beach in Marco Island, Florida!

Derby, Derby, Derby!

Before we moved to Louisville all we really knew about the Kentucky Derby was that it was a horse race, and that is was probably an important one because they talk about it on ESPN. And then we moved and found out that we were so wrong, because for the people in Louisville the Kentucky Derby is THE event of the year. The Derby Festivities last months, starting with firework shows and jet flyovers and free concerts in the park and probably tons of other things we didn't even know about because it's hard to keep up with all of the events. At work everyone got to dress casual all week and we had tons of food and games and contests (I won pin the jockey on the horse and got a $20 gift card and was pretty excited about it). So we decided since we don't know exactly how long we will live in Louisville and if we will be here at this time of year next year we had to try it out and see what all the fuss is about.  We were warned over and over again that it is one giant drinking and gambling party and that it get's really crazy. We didn't let that stop us, we went anyway, we aren't afraid of a little craziness! But this was craziness like neither one of us had ever seen! I am pretty sure that every ounce of alcohol that ever existed is sent to Churchill Downs for the Derby. You couldn't find anything else to drink. Finding a Coke was an impossible task unless I wanted it with some Kentucky Bourbon in it.  Which I considered but decided against :) By the end of the day I'm pretty sure we were both a little tipsy just from the overwhelming smell of the alcohol anyway. The Derby clothes and dresses and hats definitely did not disappoint, I didn't know what to expect really but it turns out the large majority really do dress up for it, I almost wished I had a fancy hat on myself. Next time though I'll be more prepared with my wardrobe. What you don't see on TV is that during the actual race, unless you have very expensive tickets you can't actually see the race. So we watched the race with a bunch of other fans crowded around a TV, even though we were standing inside of Churchill Downs. It was definitely still worth it though to be inside and feel the place explode when the horses took off. So we can now officially say that we have been to the Kentucky Derby!

We of course had to park a mile away, and making that walk with the crowds on the way back to the car was actually when it got the most crazy. By this point 180,000 people had been drinking all day and were all heading back to drive home, which was a little scary and we were extremely careful on our drive home. They had the National Guard and the SWAT team along with thousands of police officers making sure nobody caused any trouble. We didn't see anyone get out of control, but we definitely met some very friendly people, some very friendly people who probably aren't feeling very well today :) When we got home my hair and our clothes definitely had a pretty strong smell of we don't really want to know what, and it took an extra long shower to feel like I was clean again. Despite the rowdiness, I think we are both really happy we went down there an experienced it, definitely a once in a lifetime event. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day.

At the front gates of Churchill Downs shortly before the race started.

Gathered with all of our new friends around the TV just seconds before the big race started!

Some of my favorite outfits of the day.

A shot of Churchill Downs on our long walk back to the car

Credit for these last two photos has to go to our friends, the Smith's, who were also at the Derby and got much better pictures of the horses than we did.

Cafe Rio Recreation

So I have recently started suffering from extreme Cafe Rio withdrawals. So I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and I searched every Utah Mormon mom blog I could find until I found a recipe I was satisfied with. The grocery shopping took hours because I had never bought many of the ingredients (who's ever heard of a tomatillo?) but I got it done. Kyle and I spent hours cooking on Sunday afternoon but it paid off! I would never actually claim to have duplicated Cafe Rio, but I have to say I came dangerously close. We were pretty satisfied with how it turned out. I'm pretty excited because I think being able to recreate Cafe Rio could do wonders for our social life, we could really make a lot of friends out of this considering most of our friends out here are from Utah and suffering from the withdrawals as intensely if not worse than we are! It will also keep my cravings away and it opened my eyes to a whole new world in the produce section at the grocery store. So basically this is a win-win-win situation. Here our some pictures of our masterpiece!

Rest in Peace

This week Kyle and I realized that neither one of us has experienced extreme weather of any kind. Growing up in Las Vegas and Orange county we have pretty much been babied when it comes to weather. However, we are paying for it now. This week we experienced our first tornado warning which dragged us out of bed and to our closet for about an hour in the middle of the night. Then Kyle went out of town on Wednesday and left me here to fend for myself in this madness. It was all going fine until Saturday afternoon when we were having an EXTREME thunderstorm and lightning struck dangerously close to our apartment building. I happened to be standing in our family room right next to the TV when it hit and I was pretty convinced the world was coming to an end at that moment. It freaked me out majorly.  I have never heard a noise that loud in my life. Our power also shut off for just a few seconds and I looked over and saw our TV pop and then smoke started coming out the back of it. I figured that wasn't a good sign, and I was right. I paniced when I realized what had happened and ran and checked the rest of our appliances plugged in, and thankfully the TV was the only thing that got zapped. I was pretty bummed about it but at least it wasn't an expensive TV. And we happen to have an extra TV here with us that I stole out of my parent's garage just before we moved here. It weighs about 100 pounds, it's a Mitsubishi (who even knew they made TVs, or if Mitsubishi still even exists) and I'm not sure when it was purchased but I know we had it when Mitch was born, so that's at least 16 years ago now. But we are actually pretty stoked about it because it's 3 inches bigger! So all in all we are pretty excited and considering it an upgrade!

Goodbye old TV! You served us well, we will especially miss your built-in DVD player!

Our new TV. A 27 incher! What an upgrade!

Birthday Celebrations!

February is always a big month for us because we have both birthdays and Valentines Day to celebrate.  We had a great party with all of our awesome friends for Kyle's birthday and for my birthday Kyle took me on a great date out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner! Here are a few pictures of our celebrations!

Racquetball Tournament-More Power

In an effort to stay active, I've participated in a good amount of intramural sports while at BYU and now at the Univ. of Louisville. I really enjoy competing in sports. Earlier this week, I heard about the spring intramural schedule and saw that racquetball was one of the sports offered. I was excited to sign up and play a season of racquetball. Once I was signed up, I came to find out it was actually a weekend tournament I signed up for, not a league.

Not a big deal, I'll enjoy this one Saturday morning of games and it'll be good. I went to an informational meeting on Thursday at noon to get tournament rules and general info, and I have to say, I was feeling pretty good about my chances to go pretty far into this tournament. There were about 40 individuals all competing, so a big group, but when I was sizing everyone up, I wasn't too impressed. (Shouldn't have done that, you'll see why, keep reading)

I went this morning to the tournament, and to my surprise, all these non-athletic looking guys were all decked out in their sweatbands, sleeveless shirts, and kneepads. They came ready to play! My first game was against this guy named Ben. Once we were in the court, he was quick to inform me that he was a member of the racquetball club and that we would be playing according to USRA(United States Racquetball Association) rules. I asked him what that meant and he took that as an indication that he should descriptively explain all the rules to me. He showed me how to hold my racquet, where to serve from, what was a legal hit, etc. He even offered for me to serve first, so kind of him.

10 minutes later, the game was over and I beat him 15-1. I had about a 15 min. break before my next game. The next game was against Derek. Looking just as un-athletic as Ben, I felt good going into this game. We introduced ourselves, and he informed me he as also a member of the racquetball club and was a sponsored pro player. He wasn't kidding, he really was a pro. We went back and forth but he ended up winning 15-10.

After the game, there was a group of 4 guys outside the door, Ben being one of them. He introduced his buddies to me and said they were also members of the racquetball club. They invited me to come out for the racquetball club. That was very nice of them to invite me. I probably won't take them up on the offer, but I do appreciate the offer.

Ben: "You're a pretty good player."
Me: "Thanks, man. I appreciate that."
Ben: "You have great coverage."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Ben: "You can hit everything on the court. It's hard to get a ball by you."
Me: "Oh, right. Thank you. It's fun."
Ben: "You know, you do need to work on your power though. You don't strike the ball very hard and your hits aren't very powerful. You just need more power."
Me: "Oh.........., I'll work on that. Thanks"

So, the same guy, Ben, who I beat 15-1 is now telling me I need more power. I couldn't help but laugh about it. He was dead serious when he said it, so I had to wait until I left to laugh at it all.

So here's what I learned today:

• I'm lacking power in my racquetball game. Gotta hit the weights
• I can cover the court well
  
• I have no power in my game
• Non-athletic looking guys can be very good at racquetball
• Ben says I need more power
  
• Humble pie tastes better served. Don't judge a book by it's cover.
  

What a great tournament. I have nothing to show for it. I would have liked an intramural champion shirt, but I'll have to wait for soccer, handball, and dodgeball later in the semester for another shot at an intramural championship.

I'd like to thank Ben for helping me identify the weaknesses in my game. I'll never forget you Ben.

Kyle's First Update-I can blog too

I wanted to give this blogging thing a try. Hil's much better with the format and posting nice pictures, but I thought it would be fun to put some words down.

1 semester down, 3 to go (spring, summer, and fall). I'm on track to finish up with school by next December. That means I'll be taking classes all summer but it'll certainly be worth it. I'm very excited about the way it's all going so far. The coursework couldn't be more enjoyable and applicable to my career path. It was a leap of faith to come out to Louisville, Kentucky, but after one fall semester I am confident it's all worth it. The research projects, case studies, group projects, homework assignments, internships, assistantships, it all is setting me up to have the best opportunity for a long and successful career in collegiate athletics. I'm very happy in Louisville even though we're so far away from both our families.

The last time I enjoyed school this much had to be back when I was at Robinson Ranch. Those were the good old days of recess where we could run wild on the playground.

We're on countdown to December 2011 graduation. By then, I'll have completed my thesis project, all my classes and coursework, and we'll be on our way to work in an awesome collegiate athletics department, hopefully close to our families and loved ones back in the west coast.