Weekends Are The Best!

**** Updated post with new pictures****

I have decided that weekends are the best for many reasons. A: Jeff loves making me breakfast on the weekends! B: We get to sleep in. C: We get to do fun things together ALL day!! Not just from 4-10!

The past few weeks have been no exception. Two weeks ago we went to some friends house to watch the BYU game... which was a bust! This is going to be a LLLOOONNNGGG rebuilding season! Needless to say we lost. But Jeff and I were able to boost our spirits by going to see The Lion King at Capitol Theater thanks to mom and dad for their awesome birthday present for me. I have wanted to see The Lion King since it came to LA over 10 years ago, so when I heard it was coming to Utah I told mom and she jumped on it to get us tickets for my birthday! Gotta love her! Copy Of The Handbill We Got At The Show

Jeff and I both got sick over that week with a head cold so we stayed in for most of the week but once Saturday rolled around we knew we had to get out of the house!! So we...

...went to check out Jeff super secret work. Well we were only aloud to go to the parking lot but it was still cool for me to see where the man of my dreams spends 40 hours of his week! I can now picture where he is when he calls me from work!

Picture of Jeff's Work from the Internet

Then it was free admission day at all National Parks so we decided we would head to Utah Valley and go see Timpanogos Caves! I always thought the hike was going to be a simple little jont up and back down. FALSE it was difficult! Maybe because I was still getting over my head cold and I couldn't breathe out of my nose, or maybe it's because I'm insanely out of shape, but that was a tough hike! However; it was worth it! The caves were incredible and the hike back down was lovely!

Jeff and I "found" our own "cave"

After the hike we drove over to Thanksgiving Point for their Harvest Festival to see the giant pumpkins. I was impressed but Jeff said the ones in Half Moon Bay in California are bigger. Maybe when we move back he'll have to show me! But as for now I am impressed! While at the festival we tried some Beeffalo, a cross between a cow and a buffalo, and actually it was pretty good. The guy selling it said it is better for you than chicken, turkey, or fish. I was skeptical about that claim but it was good to the taste. They don't sell it in stores so that will probably be the last time we try it... oh well!Jeff with one of the big pumpkins
Lyndsey with the biggest pumpkin

Then we finished off the day with the BYU game... disaster again!! All I have to say is that Bronco needs to take over his defense again and ditch the offensive coordinator then we might have a chance with such a young team!!

Well, overall weekends are where its at! Jeff and I are excited for this weekend since it's time again for General Conference! We love the two weekends a year where we can listen to the Prophet and his counselors.

Weddings, Festivals, and Birthdays

This past week we had my parents come and visit us for a whole week! It was a ton of fun and very eventful.

On Thursday when they got here we met Shannen and Josh and their respective families for a "rehersal" dinner at Chuck-A-Rama. Then went to Kathy and Gary's for a fun family get together before the big wedding.
Friday morning we had to be at the temple by 11:30 for the sealing of Josh and Shannen. It was beautiful! After the sealing we took group/bridesmaids/groomsmen/family pictures. Then we sent the others away and strolled around temple square to take pictures of just Shannen and Josh. What a beautiful couple! Josh's parents held a luncheon for close family and friends at the Joesph Smith Memorial Building then we were whisked away to The Old Meeting House for the reception. I just have to say that the year of planning was worth it! They had a beautiful wedding and reception!
On Saturday we went to the world famous-kinda- Swiss Days. It's an arts and crafts festival that is actually worth going to! The entire tiny town of Midway, UT is taken over for this festival! I loved all the crafts I just wish we were rich enough to buy something. Oh well maybe next year! We went to Cafe Rio for dinner that night. Mom had been craving that since the last time she was here. Sadly she didn't get a good meal so she was disappointed and Dad didn't really care for his meal either. Oh well, we tried!

Sunday we went to church and our little CTR 4's were as cute as ever! Then Mom and I made a wonderful dinner of chicken, stuffing, yams, and broccoli. YUM!
Monday was Dad's birthday so we took him to This Is The Place Historical Monument. He likes that kind of stuff so we thought it would be perfect. Turns out we all had a great time! We haven't spent time together as a family since we went to Hawaii in 2005, so it was good to get that quality time with them! We went to Goodwood BBQ for Dad's birthday dinner then came home to open presents! Overall, I think Dad had a wonderful 66th birthday!
On Tuesday we drove down to Provo to take some family pictures. My friend Janica is a great photographer and she took our pictures for us. (Check her out at www.janicalarae.com) Then we went to Creamery on 9th for dinner and dessert. We love it when my parents come to visit us because they take us out to dinner nearly every night! Which equals no cooking for me and no dishes for Jeff. It really is a win-win for everyone! Then we went to Justin's apartment in Provo. It's a pretty nice place, there's 28 stairs to get to it, but it's nice.
Wednesday was their last day so we took it easy and just hung out at the house until Jeff got home. Then we went to see Avatar in IMAX 3D at Jordan Commons. My parents hadn't seen it before and we all thought it would be their kind of movie. And it was. They both loved it.

This past week has been so much fun having my parents and Justin around. I wish we all lived closer to each other but for now we'll just have to settle for the visits every few months! We love our family and can't wait to see them again at Christmas.

And the Thunder Rolls

This is our favorite picture

We have been having some crazy thunder and lightening storms the last few weeks, and of course Jeff and I took advantage of it. We love thunder and lightening! We were able to sit outside on our porch to watch and listen to the pounding sounds roll close! You know the second rule, well before we would even start counting the lightening would strike. Ya, that's right the storm was right at our back door! We snapped some photos of the night. It took us millions of attempts using the multiple picture mode (I don't know what it is really called) but we finally got some good ones. This particular storm started at 4:00 pm and lasted non-stop until about 4:00 am! It was a wonder to behold!
That is the Draper Temple shinning in the night

Magnificent

We Love To See The Temple

Yesterday Jeff and I were planning on doing a session in the Draper Temple. However, when we got there the 7:00 session was packed and we didn't want to wait for the 8:00 to start. So we decided to do sealings. We had never done this before (besides our own sealing) so it was great to get to hear and remember the blessings promised to us. We loved doing sealings and remembering how it felt 2 years ago when we were sealed for time and all eternity. We plan on going back and doing this more in the future and not just as a last minute switch!

Summer Nights

Movie in the Park

This weekend was the famous Draper Days! Of course we had to go and check it out! It started on Thursday with Movie in the Park. We watched The Fabulous Mr. Fox. It is a cute movie, weird, but cute! Then Saturday we walked around the festival. It wasn't as great as I thought it would be. I never thought I would have said this but Lancaster's festivals were a lot better than the ones I've been to here in Utah the last few weeks! BUMMER! All the booths were for jewelery, sunglasses, removable tattoos, or businesses trying to sell their product (air conditioners, insurance, BLAH). I like the crafty booths they had in Lancaster. You would think, in the craft capital of the world, they would have more crafty booths! Enough ranting! Saturday night we were planning on going to Beatlemania but Jeff's allergies got the best of him so we stayed in. Luckily we live close enough to Draper Park that we were able to watch the fireworks from our kitchen window! Beautiful! We live for fireworks in the summer and Utah finds any event to have fireworks! LOVE IT!

We are loving the summer nights here in Draper and are excited for the all we have yet to experience.

A Night Out

Waiting for the Orchestra to begin

Yesterday was the grand opening of the Draper Ampitheater. The Utah Symphony Orchestra did a free concert and of course Jeff and I went! It was so fun to get out of the house and listen to some good wholesome music! It was a hot and sunny day but when the sun went down it was a great evening! I love my husband and I loved spending this time with him.

Everyone Has To Start Somewhere, Right?

I was talking to some friends a few days ago and realized I don't really "blog" even though we've had this blog since we got married. So I have decided to make it a point to "blog" even if no one reads it, I will still have a journal of sorts to show our kids.

Let's see where to start.

This weekend was a fun filled weekend. We started off the Fourth of July weekend by going to Provo, UT to sit outside the LaVell Edwards Stadium to watch Stadium of Fire. We got down there early so we could walk around the festival and still make it to SOF. We enjoyed listening to Carrie Underwood and watching fireworks. We thought the show was over so we decided to cut through the stadium to get back to the car. Little did we know it was still going on so we were able to watch a little bit of it. While we were inside one of the fireworks mis-fired and shot into the crowd. Unfortunately, someone caught on fire. Everyone around her jumped on top of her. It looked like she walked away from it and wasn't that hurt. Once the show was over we made a mad dash to the car. While we were bustling around the stadium, who should I literally run into? Oh no one important, just Steve Young!! It was cool but he didn't even stop, so there went my brush with stardom! We had a BBQ with the Cosgroves on Sunday and finished the weekend on Monday with swimming and catching up on some much needed R&R.

We hope all of you had a wonderful Fourth of July! We are so blessed to live in this great country with so many freedoms and liberties. I hope no one forgets the many men and women who make our freedom possible. Thank you to all those willing to give your life!