2011 in Review

I know it has been such a long time, but last semester of school just about killed me...it was extremely hard AND the classes were all so boring. But it's a new semester, a new year, and a new season of lacrosse!!! I wanted to begin my first post of the year by doing a short review of the past year. It was absolutely wonderful and Andrew and I feel so blessed.

January and February: There wasn't too much that went on during the first few months of 2011. Andrew and I were busy with a new semester and I was traveling for lacrosse. My team was able to compete in California, Colorado and Missouri last semester. The season didn't end when we wanted it to, but my team worked hard none the less.

March: We were able to attend Cory and Jimmy's wedding. Cory looked absolutely beautiful! It's always nice to spend another weekend in Colorado any chance we get.

April: I started my blog in April...I know I'm not the best at recording the life of Andrew and I, but my goal this year is to do a post AT LEAST once a month! We'll see how we do.

May: Mac attack was born!!! Brittany and Spencer's son Cormac was born and has been so much fun to have around all the time...plus he's just so dang cute!!

June: We went to Costa Rica. It was beautiful and such an amazing trip. We were so blessed we were able to go!! I recommend a trip to Costa Rica if anyone has the chance. (Check my Costa Rica post if you want to read more about it!)

July: We spent 4th of July at our cabin in Steamboat Springs. I also discovered pinterest...It has changed the way I do so many things and has given me so much great ideas! I'm a little obsessed.

August: Tanner left on his mission. It was so sad to see him leave but he is doing amazing in Mexico. We were able to talk to him Christmas day and he sounded SO GREAT!!! Mel and Tony also had a baby girl, Anika. She had a hard birth and her arm broke during delivery but she healed really well and is as adorable as ever!!

September: We had a girls weekend in Grand Junction with my mom, sisters and sister n laws. We saw The Help, ate a lot of food and did facials. Such a great time.

October: My family competed in the Pumpkinman Triathlon in Las Vegas. Andrew and I each got first place in our divisions. We trained so hard for it and were thrilled with how well we did and everybody else in my family!

November: We got to go home to Colorado for thanksgiving. We had such a great time. The boys all played in the turkey bowl and our boys won it!!! We also had such a great time with all the family there. My brother n law Tony just finished intelligence training for the National Guard in California and we hadn't seen him in a long time. It was such a great Thanksgiving.

December: Andrew and I finished an extremely hard semester of school and we were able to spend a week and a half down in St George for Christmas. We had such a great time. His parents are moving out of St. George and up to Salt lake, so we spent a couple days moving their whole house into storage. It was very busy. We went to Vegas with Andrew's parents to spend Christmas Day there, plus we stayed there for a couple days after.....talk about some CRAZY people that hang out in Vegas. Andrew's little brother got married and we were able to go to ceremony. They had a beautiful reception on January 2nd also. It was great being around his family and relaxing.

The Pumpkinman-Swim, bike, run

For the past couple of months, Andrew and I have been training for The Pumpkinman which is a triathlon down in Las Vegas. Andrew does it every year and finally got me to commit this year. However, this was Andrew's firth year to a half ironman. It's a total of 70.3 miles where you swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 miles. He had been training all summer really hard for such a long distance, but at the same time he was playing intramural soccer and football and ended up messing his knee up at the beginning of September. It probably could of healed in plenty of time for his triathlon but he decided to run the St. George marathon 2 weeks before the tri....therefore messing it up even more. I don't know what I'm going to do with him : ) Despite all the troubles Andrew had with his knee, he still places 1st in his division!!!!!! He did such a great job.
My distance wasn't near as tough at Andrew's. I only did a sprint triathlon which was 0.5 mile swim, a 12 mile bike ride, and a 3 mile run. I had the time of my life competing and surprised myself and also got first place in my division!!!!! It was a great weekend for Andrew and I.
My parents, Terence and kierston, and Brittany, Spencer and Mac all came down to run the race also. Terence and Spencer did a relay while Brittany and Kierston did the sprint triathlon with me. Mom and Dad got to watch Mac and cheer us on!! It was so great having a fun vacation with the family. We stayed at a resort on Lake Las Vegas which was beautiful. The resort was built to represent little Italy so the architecture was adorable! They had a bridge over the lake with shops all along it, there restaurants and little shops all over. Plus we got to take a ride on the lake in a little electrical boat that wouldn't go faster then 5 miles an hour. It was awesome! We all had such a great time spending the weekend down there and the weather was fantastic. The race was a lot of fun to watch and to cheer everybody on. It was the best being able to do the race with so many of us competing!!

The resort we stayed at


The Bridge that went across Lake Las Vegas (represents the bridge in Florance, Italy)


Practicing open water swim the day before the race!


Mac watching us do our open water swim

Dad driving the electrical boat.....slowly...

On the boat!

We saw this house right off the lake on our boat ride....It is probably the biggest house I've ever seen!!


RACE DAY!!!!

Kierston, me, and Brittany

Andrew's division getting into the water to begin...it was a beautiful morning!!

Andrew's division starting...

Andrew coming out of the water!!

Me coming out of the water

I finished my bike before my dad could get to the transition area so we have no pics of the bike!
But this is me finishing the race!

The girls waiting for Andrew to come in on the bike

Andrew finishing the bike with still another 13 mile run to go

Giving Andrew supporting words before he takes off on his run....he wasn't happy!! hahah

He had to do 2 laps of a course so we got to see him half way through the run...just giving him a pick-me-up!!

They announced my name for 1st place but I didn't get to go up to the stand with the 2nd and 3rd place winners because I was watching Andrew come in from his bike....so i had to go up on my own later.

The competitors in my family + more!!

School, lacrosse, and a Little Bit More

It's been so long I almost forgot how to sign into my blogger account!!! It's been a very busy month! Right before school started we brought Tanner to the MTC. It was so great seeing him all ready to go. He has been doing really well there. His letters are so great to read. I love hearing from him. The MTC has a website called dearelder.com. You get to write your missionary anytime you want to online and then the MTC prints off the letter and gives it to the missionary everyday during lunchtime or something like that. It's really cool!
Andrew just got a new job teaching Spanish at New Haven. It's a troubled girls high school where Spencer and Brittany also work. He loves it so much but he always mentions how different it is from the 19 year old boys he used to teach Spanish to at the MTC!! Because he doesn't work right next to me anymore he had to buy something to commute with...so of course being the boy he is...he bought a bullet bike. So our baby (the xterra) now has a friend! It's so much fun to ride plus parking is so much better with the bike!!!! Andrew is in the process of teaching me to drive it, but it's SOOO hard. I can't believe I never learned to drive a clutch growing up!
School started about 3 weeks ago. It's been quit the adventure. I hadn't taken very many of my generals because I did so many classes for my dietetics major and business minor so all my classes are full of freshman (history, humanities, and philosophy). It makes the classes a little bit easier though. Luckily, I get to take 2 fun classes (anatomy and sports nutrition) so i can keep myself sane! Of course when school starts that means LACROSSE!!!! We just started up about 2 weeks ago and its been SO MUCH FUN!!! All the new freshman girls are so great. I love my team so much. We get to travel to Colorado 3 times this season including NATIONALS! That is going to be so amazing. It's going to be busy this year because 3 other girls and I are captains which means we're in charge of conditioning, fundraising, apparel and everything else that applies. It's going to be so much fun! Our team looks so great!

Last weekend we went to the BYU vs Utah game. For those of you who watched it, I know I know I know.....horrible game. But it was fun being there for our first home opener game. I miss BYU football so much! We went with some girls from my lacrosse team, Olivia and Gretchen and then Gretchen's siblings. They were so much fun to be with. There were creepy guys in front of us that kept looking back at Olivia and I and staring back at us anytime we said anything. It was extremely awkward, but we made sure they saw our rings! Plus Andrew was right there so it was kinda funny!




Biggest flag of my life....the WHOLE size of the football field.


My latest creations from pinterest that I recommend are:

Felt wreath: roll up strips of any color of felt and different sizes. Super easy and I got a lot of compliments.

Cake Pops: I got the ideas of these cake pops from pinterest but then I put together my own recipe to what was easier and tasted better. I made these for a baby shower and they were a BIG HIT!


Green machine smoothie: These are so great. Once again I got the idea off of pinterest, but I put together my own recipe to fit Andrew and my taste. Spinach, bananas, orange juice, apples, strawberries and a bit of lime juice. I froze them in muffin tins so every morning we add a bit more orange juice to the frozen cubes and we have a smoothie!!! They are full of nutrients for the day and taste great!

Jared and Suzanne are in town so they came over for a couple of hours today. Logan and Malei are so dang cute. They had these balloons and were playing with them the whole time. It made my day!!!