2016

It made me sad how many complaints that I heard towards the end of 2016 how terrible it had been and how people were more than ready for 2017. Last week Derek and I took a drive to Arches National Park and while we were driving we discussed how people were so negative towards the year, we talked about how it's a outlook thing, if you are looking for the bad you will always find it but the same goes if you are looking for the good you will find it as well (I prefer to learn from the bad and move forward reflecting on the good).

So here is my list of 2016 Greats!

• Started the year off great with a COLD bike ride (January 1st)
• Visited Capital Reef National Park with Derek (January 2nd)
• Lots of drives up the canyons with Derek (All Year)
• Ice Castles with Mom, Kayla, and Derek (January 20th)
• Visited Bryce Canyon National Park with Derek (March 6th)
• Hit a blizzard on the way back from Bryce Canyon (March 6th)
• Lots of bike rides by myself, with Derek/Kayla, and with Derek (All Year)
• Lots of experiments with my grill (All Year)
• Went to my first Caucus (March 22nd)
• Went to Salt Flats with Derek (March 25th)
• Hit a blizzard on the way back from Salt Flats (March 25th)
• Quit job at Young Explorers Daycare (April 8th)
• Started new job at Joseph Thomas Real Estate (April)
• Went riding on Antelope Island with Derek (April 9th)
• Got rid of a lot of stuff and reorganized basement with Mom (April)
• Biked Front Runner Century with Kayla (April 23rd)
• Made my first Lemon Curd (April 26th)
• Lots of evening walks with Mom (All Year)
• Went to California to babysit for Joel and Becky with Mom (May)
• Explored California with Mom, Children, Kyle, Kayla, and Derek (May)
• Visited Yosemite National Park with Kayla and Derek (May 29th)
• Hit a rabbit (May 29th)
• Biked Little Red Riding Hood with Kayla and her Mom (June 4th)
• Had my tire completely blow threw (June 4th)
• Made Kiera's First Birthday Cake--6 layers (June 11th)
• High Valley Concert with Mom in the park (June 20th)
• Fiddler on the Roof play with Mom and Lucy (June 21st)
• Bike ride with Brea, Leah, and Mandy (June 23rd)
• Volunteered at Lehi Round Up (June 24th)
• Volunteered at Bike MS in Logan (June 26th)
• Thompson Square concert with Kayla (June 29th)
• Helped carry the Giant Flag up the Canyon (July 3rd)
• Quick trip to Bear Lake with the Chuy's (July 3rd-4th)
• Truck drove through our backyard (July 6th)
• Biked Antelope Island by Moonlight (July 15th)
• Went to Salt Flats with Derek (July 16th)
• Went hiking with Brea and kids (July 23rd)
• Went to Castle Valley Pageant with Mom and Chuy's (July 29th)
• Hiked Donut Falls with Skousen's and McBride's (August 13th)
• Went to Bee's Baseball game with Mom and the Chuy's (August 13th)
• Went to Utah County Fair with Mom, Ben, and Sonia (August 20th)
• Went to Nashville Tribute Band concert with Mom (August 22nd)
• Installed bike rack on my car with Derek (September 1st)
• Went to St. George with the Skousen's (September 2nd)
• Visited Zion National Park with the Skousen's (September 3rd)
• Mom received her mission call (September 15th)
• Biked Goldilocks ride with Leah (September 24th)
• Took the Chuy's family pictures (September 25th)
• Hosted Newport girls night during Priesthood session (October 1st)
• Signed an official offer on American Fork townhouse (October 1st)
• Designed my house (October)
• Birthday dinner with Erin and Jamie (October 12th)
• Witches night out with Brea and Kimmy (October 14th)
• OneRepublic concert with Katrina (October 15th)
• Jazz Game with Kyle, Ben, and kids (October 17th)
• Birthday (October 19th)
• Surprise breakfast from Chase and Davey
• Pedicures with Kayla and Mom
• Dinner at Cantinas with Mom, Libbey, Kyle, Kayla, Derek, and Brea
• Dinner at Benihanas with Brea and Leah
• Pinners conference with Brea and Mandy (November 5th)
• Bonfire up the canyon with Kayla and Derek (November 9th)
• Beauty and the Beast play with Mom (November 11th)
• Disneyworld with Brea and McBride's (November)
• Little Mermaid play with Mom (November 21st)
• Aquarium with family (November 23rd)
• Thanksgiving with family (November 24th)
• Started back at VASA and started working with a trainer (November 30th)
• Nashville Tribute Band Christmas concert with Mom (December 2nd)
• Dinner with Newport friends (December 8th)
• Got beautiful Christmas tree (December 9th)
• Christmas Carol Sing-A-Long with Mom and the Chuy's (December 12th)
• Installed insulation with Derek on my house (December 17th)
• Cookie making with the Chuy's (December 18th)
• Vernal trip with Mom and Kyle (December 21st-23rd)
• Visited Dinosaur National Monument with Mom and Kyle (December 22nd)
• Christmas Eve at the Chuy's (December 24th)
• Visited Arches National Park with Derek (December 30th)
• Family pictures at the State Capital (December 31st)
• Dinner with the family for Mom's birthday (December 31st)

(Instagram created this, they said that these are my top 12 from 2016...they are all from the last 4 months of the year so I am not sure how accurate it is)

A Ride Thru June

The beginning of June brought my new clip pedals for my bike, I was super excited to get them in the mail but as I mentioned in a previous post I haven't yet put them on my bike. I'm excited to try them but super nervous at the sametime, I've seen/heard of too many people crashing and I already have balance problems.  

June brought a super exciting time...Little Red! Friday afternoon I got off work a little early and went and picked up Kayla. We then headed north to Lewiston where we had purchased the dinner. It was then a bit of an adventure finding Sallee's friends house but we got there and talked a little bit about the plans for the next day and then headed to bed (with the hopes of getting lots of sleep...I'm not sure that that happened for any of us). We got started a little later than we were wanting Saturday morning and I felt like I was going to be sick at the beginning (I get really bad nerves with anything like this). 

 Each of the rest stops were well stocked! 

 At one stop we discussed if we were going to make it to the 100 miles (there was a certain time cut off that you had to be to 70 miles in order to continue on and do the 100). I knew that Kayla and Sallee really wanted to push for it but I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep up the speed that was necessary to make it so I told them to push forward without me and go for the 100. I apparently had a much different experience then them. I stopped at the lunch spot where it was like a giant party going on, I looked around and saw some people sleeping and I heard about people stopping and taking selfies. While I was at the lunch spot Kayla's parents and brother came and stopped by to say hi. It was so nice to have someone come and cheer us on! 

I figured that I had a couple of hours before Kayla and Sallee were going to be back so I wasn't going to go full speed, I didn't really feel like killing myself. After the lunch spot it kind of felt like non-stop hills, I spent a lot of the time telling myself that I could do hard things to make it up the hills but I did it! There was some beautiful views! 

 I was about 8 miles from the end when I was suddenly done. Not only was I don't but I was angry and questioning why I was even doing what I was doing, I felt like if there was a support vehicle that came by I was going to just ask them to take me back. I said a small prayer to help me finish and have a better attitude. The next thing I knew I came to a group that I waited with to cross a road, this other lady said we should be almost done, one of the other ladies started going off about how we better be because she was done (and she had done the 50 miles). I realized that I must have sounded ridiculous in my head if I sounded anything like her and that I needed to get a better attitude. It still was hard but I am so glad that I finished! 

 When I got home my Mom had mentioned that Libbey was feeling pretty miserable and she thought that she was going to be having the baby any day, so Sunday I decided that I was going to make dinner for everyone. Mom and I quickly made a delicious menu and even had some cute decorations (not bad for me deciding Sunday afternoon that I was going to do it...luckily we had the food to complete the menu). 

Big News from June!!! I got a new car!!

 I had been thinking about it for awhile going back and forth when Derek got a new Mazda6. He and I talked all about why and how he had decided to do it, I did some other reading and went to Mazda to just look at the options that I had and decided to get one. I loved my old car but I'm super happy with my choice of new car! 

 There was an Asian festival in Sandy that I went to one Saturday, it was fun to see the different representatives from Taiwan and other countries and the things that they shared. 

 Sometimes I'm impressed with my pictures :)

 We had some fun Hawaiian stuff for the kids to dress up with, they felt that I needed to dress up too. 

 Yep I'm in there :)

 Kyle was here for his birthday. He always has fun recipes to try and asked that I make a vanilla buttercream using reall vanilla beans. I was sooooo super excited, I've always wanted to make something with a whole vanilla bean. 

 Do you see the specks of vanilla bean!? So pretty! 

 Kyle and Sonia's birthdays are a week apart and because she had been in Canada for her actual birthday we sang to both of them. 

The falls going up Provo Canyon. I thought they looked gorgeous one evening when Kayla and I went biking.  

 This made me laugh, during Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days people started laying out their stuff for the parade almost a week before the parade. I didn't think that it was that big of a parade. One day I was feeling very much in a bratty mood and wanted to go and rearrange everyone's stuff (don't worry I was good and didn't). 

 Sonia and I went up to the Saturday market in Salt Lake one Saturday and got some yummy fruit and pastries. 

 We had a family dinner with some of the Landry's. It was the day before Jonathan's birthday so I asked what he would like. He/Naomi requested Chocolate Lava Cake, it was something that I've always thought would be fun to try so I jumped on the opportunity. 

 While we were eating dinner there was a knock at the door. When I went to answer it there was a sister from my ward who handed me this and walked away. It was so unexpected and greatly appreciated as it was something that I been thinking about lately. 

 The end results of Chocolate Lava Cake...super good but too rich for me, even with the ice cream. 

 Kayla and I had a FHE activity one night where we went to the park nearby and played frisbee PIG (similar to Baskeball PIG but with frisbee). 

 I tried taking newborn pictures of Kiera one night, that beautiful little girl does not know that she is only barely more than a month old. She wiggled so much and had opinions about everything that I did!

 Mom and I went on a drive with Libbey and Sophie and saw these cute ducklings with their mommy. 

 Watching the parade for Lehi Round-Up (Ben was in charge of the float for their ward so Mom and I went and supported him). 

 So crazy and a bit scary with how hot it has been lately!

My newest "baby!" Derek's dad had an extra (or two) grills and offered me one of them. I've cooked a couple of things on it already and am enjoying learning new techniques/skills (I definitely have more learning to do though!).