Easter 2011

Like I said in the last post, Audrey joined us for Easter this year. This is the 3rd year Eric and I have spent Easter together, and thanks to Audrey, we've spent it with family each year!

At the plaza the night before Easter.

Thanks to our evening at the plaza the night before, we didn't get around to Easter shopping until after 9. A lesson for all of you: there IS an endless supply of Easter baskets and Easter goodies. But rather than go to another store, we made due with our Easter BAGS. I think it will be a memorable little Easter for us!

Eric hid my Easter bag downstairs while Audrey and I hid upstairs. It was actually really great having 3 people because 1 was able to be the photographer at all times. My bag was hiding underneath clothes in the dryer.

Next up was Eric! He hid downstairs while Audrey and I hid his bag upstairs. He found it fairly fast inside of my old backpack in the 2nd bedroom closet (I still claim Eric heard the closet door open and close...).

Eric also hid Audrey's bag. So we wouldn't hear any doors or closets, Audrey and I waited outside for this one. She searched and searched and searched the ENTIRE upstairs and still didn't find her bag. After her second time around each room, Eric had to direct her to the bathroom. BEST HIDING SPOT EVER!! And now you see why Easter bags rock so much more than Easter baskets--better hiding places! Audrey looked in the shower multiple times but didn't think to look in BETWEEN the shower curtain and curtain liner. Nicely done Eric!

After church I did an Easter egg hunt for the 2 big kiddos. Let me just tell you, that was the most fun part of the day. I didn't think the eggs were that hard to find, but apparently I was wrong! It was hilarious watching them pass the spots and not see the eggs. But hey, I wasn't going to hide the eggs in obvious spots like for 3 year olds. They had to work for their goodies!

We had a grand old Easter. I'm so glad that Eric fits right in with my family. It makes for some fun times!

Audrey's Visit

Audrey came to Kansas City for Easter weekend! This is basically how it happened.

Me: Hey Audrey, you should fly out this weekend.

Audrey: I can't this weekend. What about next weekend?

And 11 days later she was here! I had planned on shopping for decorations for our place, but Audrey and I can't seem to go a visit without clothes shopping--and that took up our whole day.

Eric reaped some of the rewards, as you can see:

I don't have many pics from our shopping extravaganza, but Audrey was not happy that I was finding more stuff than her. Hehe. It ALWAYS goes the other way around.

And this is what we came out with. It's so nice shopping for clothes with a woman; Eric just doesn't cut it with that kind of thing. We were in a very blue mood. Also, our matching item of this trip was jewelry. It's tradition to get something matching! :)

Saturday night the three of us went out to dinner at the Melting Pot. I've been meaning to take Eric there but haven't yet, so who better to share it with than my sister?

We did all the courses and it was DELICIOUS. I tried not to eat too much because we all know my favorite course is the last one...dessert!

I love miniature items, so the tabasco sauce was a big hit. I can't believe I forgot to take it home! Favorite picture of the trip:

I love having Audrey here! Girl time is a must sometimes. I'm thinking we'll have to have another trip soon because I am in desperate need of summer clothes! I'll talk about our Easter on tomorrow's blog.

It's been too long

Man oh man, it's been over 2 months since I've written a blog! A lot has happened since then, so I will probably be blogging everyday for the next week or two. My pics are just way too awesome to go to waste!

Let's start with: WORLDS OF FUN.

Eric and I had the opportunity to go to this theme park for SUPER cheap in April! A family in our ward has season passes, and for opening day they could bring a bunch of people for an awesome price. We took advantage and we are really glad we did. Karrie and Austin came along too.

I can't even explain how cold it was that morning. All we brought were sweatshirts (which I was happy about later in the day) but it was FREEZING up until about 12 or 1. I was so cold I didn't really want to do too much on the rides. We mainly walked around and watched all the kiddos have fun.

Yes we went on the go-carts. I'm pretty sure they went a lot faster when I was a kid :) Or maybe it has something to do with me having my license?

Shout out to my heritage!

Our favorite rides were the roller coasters-especially the Mamba. I would have gone on it twice, but I wasn't about to wait in that line again!

During our wandering we stopped for a game. All 4 of us tried to win a care bear by throwing 3 (or 4?) balls and trying to get them to land in a row. Austin was the only one who was successful, but Eric and I came soooo close.

Our last ride of the day was the rafting ride. If we got wet right before heading home, we wouldn't be freezing the rest of the day. Luckily the sun was shining at that point and it wasn't so chilly.

Thanks to the Staggs for letting us tag along! We had a great time :)

Fans

It happened. Eric and I are now Royals fans. I will tell you why I am near the end of this post. Eric still loves his Red Sox, but he's willing to share the love.

Last Friday we went to a Royals game with some of Eric's friends from school. They were pretty entertaining.

We walked around the stadium so I could last until the end of the game. This is by the fountains that shoot up water at the back of the field.

Eric caught a foul ball!! It looks so much smaller out on the field...

And how can you not fall in love with the Royals when ice cream is sporting them?

This is the view from our seats. We could have easily sat closer. Let's just say the Royals aren't a sold out kind of team.

I'm pretty sure Eric's favorite part of the game was getting to eat a Chicago-style hot dog. Gotta love him :)

I'm not sure why we were making these faces, but I know I told us to look like something...any ideas?

And this brings me to my point on why I am now a Royals fan. It was in the 9th inning, the score was 1 to 1 and the Royals were up to bat. If they didn't score then the game would keep going and going until someone won (I would not be okay with that). All of a sudden...dun dun dun...HOME RUN!! Ahhh it was so cool. Just like that, the game was over with a bang! I love seeing home runs and I love when the team I'm rooting for wins and I love when a baseball game ends.

After the game there was a firework show. It was really fun. The fireworks shot off to various popular songs. My favorite was when they played Katy Perry's Firework song. The fireworks shot off to the lyrics "boom boom boom." It reminded me of Disneyland!

It was a pretty good night. I love any excuse to take pictures :)

Kansas City Temple

I am definitely behind on the blog! Not that too much has happened that has been blog worthy. A few weeks ago Eric's parents came to visit. We mostly just hung out the entire time (Eric playing on his mom's iPad).

I have been wanting to check out where the Kansas City Temple is being built. Last May they broke ground, so Eric and I thought it would be done in a few years and we had hoped it would be finished in time for us to utilize it. Well, this temple is cruising. It is anticipated to be done at the end of this year or the beginning of 2012.

I like this picture because it reminds me of the completed version underneath--which has been sent around to every LDS family around the area.

It was definitely cool seeing the temple before it is finished. I have never been to one that is in the process of being built.

Eric and his parents. Happy family! He left a space so I could be photoshopped in. How thoughtful my husband is :)

The Angel Moroni was added about a week or two after this picture was taken.

It was a good trip seeing the temple grounds. It's amazing how they already have pictures of what it will look like. It's going to be beautiful! Eric and I can't wait to be able to go to the temple on a regular basis. The 3 1/2 hour drive has not allowed us to go since we've lived in Kansas.

Happy birthday to ME!

My birthday was on March 3rd. I am now closer to 25 than 20. It's the beginning of the end...haha. I'm getting pretty old, but luckily I got a nice present to ease the pain.

Eric has been wanting me to get a Mac for quite some time, but I insisted that I didn't need one and could use my PC until it died. I didn't last as long as that because my PC is SOOO slow. So the weekend before my birthday I mentioned getting a laptop for my birthday. Eric was ecstatic (he loves any excuse to go to the Apple Store). Of course, we ended up going right away.

Once we were at the Apple Store I was in the mindset of, "Let's do this quick so I don't think about the money we're spending." Like a bandaid--rip it off fast. We looked around for a little bit so I could think it through, but we quickly returned to the Macbook Pros and were ready to buy.

This was the first time I bought something at the Apple Store! The laptop came with a free WIRELESS printer! That definitely helped my decision because our previous printer was having some issues, and now we got one for FREE!

I tried to wait until my birthday to open it...I made it until that evening.

My first Mac!

Look how happy I am :)

Thanks for my present Eric! Even if you just want me on your side in the Mac vs PC war :)

this JUST happened

Eric and I were walking home from our friends' house tonight and as we were approaching our car he said, "Is that a rat?" I didn't see anything so I thought he was crazy, but he said something went under our car.

Being the investigators we are, Eric turned the light on from his phone and this is what we saw:

At first we did think it was a rat, but if it is, that's the biggest rat in the world. So we decided it's a possum. Eric tapped on the car and made noises, but it wouldn't move. He has a basketball game tonight, so he didn't want to run it over with our car.

Eric turned on the car and it still didn't move. He then backed up slowly, hoping he wouldn't run over it. The last thing we want is road kill in our parking spot. The possum STILL didn't move. However, once the car was completely backed out and the possum realized it was exposed, it ran under our neighbor's truck.

Either the truck wasn't a good enough hiding spot or my camera flashes scared the thing, because he ran out and went onto our neighbor's porch.

And then it kept running and was coming at me, so what was I supposed to do? I didn't want the gross possum to brush against me or be near me, so I screamed and it changed direction. I then ran in the house and Eric continued to take pictures for me :)

And so far, that's as dangerous as it has gotten around here. It got my heart racing! I'm praying that there are no holes big enough for the possum to get into our house, because I would freak out. Hopefully I will never have to see it again.

As Promised:

Snow Day(s)

My motivation to blog recently=nonexistent. But I do love stalking other people's blogs, so keep the posts coming!

Accepting a job that was 20 miles away worried me for one reason--I didn't want to drive that far in the snow. I've been in a pretty bad car accident, and since then, I'm pretty much a wuss when it comes to driving dangerously and in dangerous conditions. But I had no reason to worry. Here in Kansas, we have snow days. Ever heard of it? Probably not if you live in Northern Idaho and Utah (where I was before Kansas).

We've probably had 4 snow days so far. By we, I mean Eric. And when he has a snow day then I work from home...so it's almost as good. Right. But I'll take what I can get. One of these snow days I didn't have any work to do, so Eric and I got to play!

I decided it would be a good idea to bring Edward and Bella along for our snow day festivities.

We got all bundled up and ready for the cold! Eric and I went on a wonderful walk. We may have ended up at Arby's to eat some lunch.

Here's our car. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but it gets REALLY cold here during the snow storms. The cold freaks people out more than the actual snow, I think.

The icicles on our car. I LOVE icicles. I think they are so so pretty :)

Eric and me shoveling some snow!

And of course I had to make a snow angel! Eric wouldn't make one with me because he didn't want to get his pants wet. Mine got soaked. But whatever.

And that concludes the first snow storm of the year.

Now for the second (or maybe the third?) snow storm of the year. The news people said this was the biggest snow storm here in over 50 years or maybe ever. Sounds intense right? Day 1 there was freezing rain. Day 2 there was TONS of snow. Day 3 was FREEZING. We were on a blizzard alert and no one was supposed to be on the roads unless it was vital. This is how things looked:

I got 2 days of working from home for this one. Poor little Eric was sick and had to rest the whole time. It was sad that he couldn't have fun on his days off, but we're grateful that it happened during a time when he wouldn't miss classes.

Stay tuned for my next blog:

A Video of Eric!