Arizona to Idaho

The summer has begun. The sun finally decided to come out and stay!

It seems that as we grow up summer vacation isn't so much a vacation anymore. We don't get to ride bikes with our friends all day, or run through the sprinklers and eat otter pops, or end the night with good 'ol fashioned game of kick the can. We get to be grown ups.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my life, but without the few little trips we get to take each year I don't know if I could make it.

Last week marked the first trip to Lake Powell! This is the first year my family has gone together and I can't even tell you how excited I was to go.  I love Lake Powell SO much! Needless to say, it was definitely an adventure. Here's a few things that happened:

--The first night we were there, a cooler full of soda was stolen out of my sister's boat... (The boat was parked in the hotel parking lot).  The next night another cooler was stolen out of another boat, and the people reported it so the Page, AZ police came and checked it out. They figure it was someone looking for alocohol. I'm guessing they were pretty bummed out when all they got from us was a cooler full of shasta.  They eventually got a person into custody... it was a woman in her mid 40's.

-- The first night a few of us went and saw Transformers 3.  Page has 1 theater and 1 screen... needless to say we were the only white poeple in the entire room. As far as the movie goes, I was pleasently surprised.  I'm always a little worried when they make 3rd or 4th parts of  a movie but I gotta say it was pretty good.

-- Day one on the boats: We were all freakishly excited to finally be on the water, we loaded all of our stuff, got launched and as soon as we got the boats in the water, the wind kicked up. Long story short, finding our beach was not a fun experience. Big waves splashing us in the face, boats pounding the water and a cold wind to add to the mix. Not fun. This was my dad's and a few other's first time down there, they weren't impressed by this experience at all. The wind finally died down and the rest of the day turned out to be pretty great.

My nephew Brock (who is 6) was such a stud on the wakeboard, he popped right up and showed us all how it's done

Jolene also conquered the wakeboard.. after many summers of attempting to get up SHE DID IT! Way to go Jo!

Speaking of Jolene she got engaged right before the trip.. (the third wedding in 2 years for my parents and the second in this year alone... whew.) BIG congrats to Jolene and Matt.

-- The rest of the time was amazing. Except one thing. We got a ticket.
The next day we launched at Wahweep and as we were jetting off to our destination... we were stopped by a little ranger guy on a waverunner.  He stopped us because I was sitting on the back of the boat, apparently you can't do that but I didn't know, so I apologized and got down into the boat.  That wasn't enough for him, he needed to check the boat to see if everything was under safety regulations. All was well except for one thing; we didn't have a type 4 throwable flotation device. Now if your asking what the heck that is... so were we.  So for that, we were ticketed.  Come to find out, the type 4 throwable is essentially a floating square with handles... I guess the 10 life jackes on the boat just weren't enough floatation devices? That little floating square cost us $131.00 in tickets. Awesome.  To add to the mix Riley was the one who got the ticket. Why? Well he was driving at the time and even though it wasn't our boat.. we got the ticket. Just our luck of course. Oh well.
Don't worry we didn't let that ruin our day at all. We still spent the rest of our time cliff jumping, wakeboarding and getting beaten up on the tubes.  All in all it was a great trip!

We got back from Lake Powell at around 12:30 1-ish Saturday night, and Sunday morning we got to drive up to Bear Lake for Riley's family reunion. You guessed it, we were pretty tired and sick of being in the car. The weather wasn't the greatest so we didn't even get in the water but it was worth it for the raspberry shake and good company. I was too busy napping in the trailer to take any pictures but it was nice and relaxing :-)

Ode to Daddies

For some reason when I see a man cuddling a baby or pushing a stroller he becomes 10 times more attractive.  A baby just melts the rough exterior of the man who normally tries to be gruff and tough. I can't wait to see Riley wrapped around a little girls finger and try to say no to her..
 

We don't have kids of our own yet obviously, but by the way I see Riley interact with the nieces and nephews, I know he's going to be a great dad.  This is one of the reasons I fell in love with him :-)

I've had a lot of good examples in my life of men who taught me not only how to work hard but also how to play hard. I never really realized how good of a childhood I had until I grew up and looked back. I got pretty lucky to be put in the family that I was... I may be a little partial but I think we're pretty awesome. 

I just found this poem and thought it was appropriate.

Ode To Dads

Any time we had a problem dad was always there.
Whether it was large or small he always seemed to care.
He had a quiet confidence in everything he'd do.
He wouldn't let things bother him and we could feel that too.

We'd try to do things on our own, that was how we were raised.
But dad was there in case we failed, and he was never fazed.
He'd pick us up and dust us off and show us how it's done.
He made things seem so easy; even hard jobs seemed like fun.

Sometimes dad was a chef working at the barbeque
I still can smell that smoke, as he’d cook a steak or two.
Sometimes he was a chauffer driving here and driving there.
Sometimes we drove him crazy. (I'm surprised he still has hair.)

The years have come, the years have gone, but one fact still remains
Our dad is still there for us, some things just never change.
And looking back on all those years there's just one thing to say.
We love you dad and hope you have a super Father's Day.

The Last Few Months

The last few months have been.... lets just say time has gone by pretty fast. And what do we have to show for it? Well for starters, we did a 5K!

    

        Riley's cousin Sarah has been struggling with cancer for the past few years or so now, as a benefit they put on a 5K fundraiser. It was amazing to see the outpouring of support for her and her family from so many people.

Most of my family ran, as well as Riley's family (including the dog) and my best friend Kellie.  I do have to brag a little.. the next day almost everybody was sore and in pain but me :-) I felt great.... but I'm still so proud of everyone that tried and did their best. 

When you're with the Hiatt's there's bound to be something funny that happens.  Noel showed up with a walker, then when they sounded the horn to start the race, he jetted off through the crowd. I've never seen a walker roll that fast.  It gave everyone a good laugh thats for sure.

For the record I hate this picture of me, but it's the only one I have of all of us...
If you're wondering where Riley is.. he was inside scarfing down on pancakes and just couldn't break away.

Ashley was a good sport... for about the first 25 steps. But she was a trooper finished the race with a smile!

~SUPER BIKE~

No, we aren't really fans of bullet bikes; but Riley scored some free VIP tickets from work, and when he heard there would be a buffet lunch, nothing could stop him from going.  It was actually kind of nice, since our schedules are so busy between work, school and side projects we only see eachother on Sundays. It was refreshing to have an excuse to spend the day together, doing something other than taking a nap. 

We drove out to Larry Miller Raceway in Tooele a.k.a. middle of nowhere and spent most of the day @ the track.  Needless to say, the actual race wasn't all that intriguing. It reminded me that I could never get into NASCAR or any type of racing where the only thing you really see are blurs zooming past going around in circles.  However, the lunch was delish and it was fun to walk around and see the different vendors, and just spend  the  

day with my husband.  One cool part about it was the stunt show, we both got a pretty good kick out of it and Riley was just amazed at the mechanics and skill that it took to handle the bikes.  When the stunt show was over, we pretty much just decided to head back to civilization.  Of course once we got home it got busy again, Riley went straight to

 working on his latest project and I got things done that I needed to. Whether we are fans of the races or not, they gave us an excuse to hang out together and I'm definitely ok with that.

Fitness

So I started a fitness blog.  Random, I know right? Well after a long journey at UVU in the Pre-PT progam I got sick of fighting for classes and needed a fast track to something for right now.  So I switched over to Provo College and am in their Personal Training progam.  I NEVER thought I'd be at a career college and especially thought I'd never say that I'm acually enjoying it there.  I graduate in December certified through NSCA as a Personal Trainer (assuming I pass the tests of course) which I WILL.  The progam is certainly not an online 6 week certification; it goes a lot more into depth and I'm very much looking forward to all that I will learn and apply.

I'v always loved health and fitness, it makes me feel good and I know it makes others feel good too.  Unfortunately some people just don't get of their butt to do it... actually about 66% of Americans don't.  Anyway my other blog is called Fit for YOUR Body (http://www.fitforyourbody.blogspot.com/).  Each day I hope to post either a motivational quote, healthy recipe, exercise routine, etc... Check it out I hope you enjoy. 

Cutest Cupcakes Ever

Remember the cake blog I was telling you about?  Well the blogger (Trisha) was in town for a visit and she was nice enough to teach us how to do some super cute cupcakes.  Surprisingly they were fairly easy to do, I just wish I was creative enough to come up with the ideas.

Try to guess what they are ;-)

• Popcorn
• Apple
• Spahetti and meatballs
• Grass and Easter Eggs
• Spring Flower (frosting only)
• Another Flower (marshmallows)
• and for my own amazing creativity..... a swirly design

Home Sweet Home

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!

        After a year of searching and many offers made we finally nailed one!  Not just any one, the PERFECT one. 

We really wanted to find a home for sale by owner and without a realtor.  We quickly found out that unfortunately this isn't really possible, so we got a realtor to show us some places.  We put in a few offers and didn't get any of them.... Frusterated we decided to take a break from house hunting, and thats when it happened.  We found a house on KSL that was in our price range, a location that we preferred and get this, it was for sale by owner! We jumped on it pretty quick took one look @ it, fell in love and made an offer with no realtors involved (no offense to any realtors out there) 
Riley of course is always looking for a good deal, and offered about 10 grand less than the asking price.  Thinking that we would probably not get it at that price, we were prepared to pay full asking price just to make sure we got it.  What do you know, two days later Riley called me @ school and told me we got the house, and for less than the asking price! 

I couldn't believe it. Literally. I made him pinky promise me that he wasn't kidding. 

The loan process began and one month later we were moved in.  We were actually moved in the same day we signed the papers... we were just a little excited. 

     The outside needs a little lovin' but the inside is immaculate and I can't wait to decorate those walls. 

I can't believe how blessed we are, we got more than we ever expected to get right now.

The backyard is so cute, and all ready for little ones to come along... someday.

 A treehouse! How cool is that?

Look What I Made!

So I've gotten into cakes lately, I've tried fondant..... and it gets a little better with every attempt. When I saw this cake on blog I folow I fell in love! Luckly I've got an in with the blogger so I got the recipe, and made it for Noel's birthday/Super Bowl Party. I'm happy with how it turned out!

If you want to take a look at that blog its www.icravecake.blogspot.com. It's my brother in laws sister, she is a-mazing. check it out!

There were more M&M's until the birthday boy got a hold of it...  but hey, that's what they are there for!

~HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOEL~