May 2014

A lot of progress has been happening on the new temple in Provo. Here is a picture from May:

For Mothers Day this year, we pulled a fast one on my parents.

We took off a couple days of work and drove out for an extended weekend.

Only they had NO idea we were planning this :)

We stopped at the Reno temple on our way, since we had not seen it in person.

From there, we called my dad and asked him about his dinner plans.

He helped us surprise my mom. He invited her to dinner when she got off work. We met up with him at the restaurant before she arrived. Thomas and I secured a table and waited inside, while my dad waited outside for my mom.

I think she liked her surprise :)

We spent the weekend playing with my parents' pets and visiting people. 

We got to talk to my missionary sister, too-- who also didn't know we were going to be at my parents' :)

Some of our friends came over for the Skype call.

And we got to see a house project my dad has been working on:

And we got to see my dear friend Lanessa in her lovely home :)

It was a good trip. It would have been better if we hadn't been sick, but we're glad we could make the visit.

On Memorial Day, I went on a bike ride with our friend Natashia & her kids. It was really fun!

At the end of May, we watched the Electrodash 5K in Provo. We'd seen it being set up, and we heard it in the evening, but didn't know what it was. So we took a walk to find out.

It was ... pretty weird. We walked part of the course and ended up staying for a few minutes as the race began. We even saw the first few finishers returning. And then we researched it a little and found out it's more of a party than a race, so the winners didn't even get anything. Bummer.

oxox

April 2014

In April....

We moved!

And because we got a smoking deal on strawberries, I was making jam and freezing strawberries the first weekend we were in our new apartment. I'm not sure I recommend that.

Anyway... we like our new place. It is a block away from where we've lived the past 4 years. With rent and utilities, we figure we'll be paying about the same as we were. But we gained a second bedroom, more windows, and a larger kitchen!

I finished Couch to 5K again, with my friend Denise. We've been pretty good about running 3 times a week!

I tried out another Bountiful Basket.

Those bananas never ripen to a normal, edible state. That mini watermelon was pretty good, though. And our second try on a spaghetti squash was a better experience than our first (though it's still not our favorite).

We had a lovely Easter.

I made hot cross buns.

We made a veritable feast for Easter dinner:

Deviled eggs, roasted carrots, gefilte fish, matzo ball soup, roasted lamb.... YUM.

We went to dinner with Thomas' friend from work and his wife and daughter:

And Sarah stayed with us for a couple days in between moving and traveling :)

oxox

March 2014

In March, I had an opportunity to help teach a PREP workshop with my fellow PREP curriculum students. That was a good experience.

We celebrated my birthday and our anniversary with a trip to Tucanos. On my actual birthday we went to the temple and to Denny's for my free grand slam and finished out the night with blizzards from DQ.

My cousin returned from his mission, so we went to his homecoming talk and then to an open house.

We decided to take a long weekend for our 4th anniversary and go to the cabin! We weren't expecting to see quite so much snow...

But we had a lovely time anyway and even made a romantic meal together.

Thomas had an Elders Quorum (& families) activity that weekend that we came back for:

And we brought some friends back up to the cabin for lunch & games afterward.

oxox

February 2014

Thomas got to go skiing with Sterling at the beginning of February. It was really awesome - he got the pass through work!

For one of our dates, we tried out Emanuel's at the recommendation of some friends (it was ok, but I'm not sure we'll go back) and then we went to the BYU Museum of Art to go to their Sacred Gifts exhibit. It was beautiful and a really nice way to spend time together.

The weather took a really nice turn in February. We took a couple of walks and I even started Couch to 5K running again.

Thomas' dad came for another visit, and took us to Olive Garden.

We had a church Valentine's Day dance.

Thomas' cousin, Sarah, moved into the area at the end of the month. We've seen her a couple of times, including taking her out for dinner for her birthday at The Banana Leaf. It was our second time there and
yummmm.... we were not disappointed.

At the end of the month, we went to a recital for a friend in the ward graduating in music performance.

oxox