Trip to Utah

We took a trip to Utah a few weeks ago. Kat and I went early to go to my brother's wedding reception and then Drew came about a week later. We crammed in a lot while we were there (hence the many pictures) and had a ton of fun.

My brother's reception was at the Brighton ski resort. It was really pretty up there. We went on a little hike before the reception and then walked up to a little waterfall right outside of the reception to get some pictures during it.
Kathryn was a little afraid of the water, but it was really beautiful. There were a ton of rocks at the bottom of the ski lift and Kathryn and her cousin Adriana loved playing with them. They apparently tasted good too :)
Here's a picture of all of my family that was there...
And here we are with my brother (Chris) and sister-in-law (Di)...

Check out my brother's tie-it's a metal washboard and came with thimbles to play it. He jumped in with the band on a song to jam with them :) It totally fits his personality and he had a lot of fun with it.

Here's the happy couple dancing. Aren't they cute? :)
It was a really fun party in a beautiful place.

While we were out there, we got to see several of our friends. We forgot to take pictures with all of them, but here are the ones we did remember to take pictures with...

Friends from Iowa

Me with 2 of my old roommates-we all have little girls now which was a lot of fun.

Me and Kat with Renee, one of my best friends from when I taught school.

Kathryn and I spent a couple of days with my sister and her family at our family's cabin in the Uinta mountains. I hadn't been there for awhile, so it was great to be back. It has always been a place of peace for me and I have tender memories of it. In the cabin there is a spiral staircase which was Kathryn's favorite part. So this was her idea of fun...
Not this...
Can you tell? :) She was just sick of me trying to take a million pictures, but I had to include it because her face is just priceless :) I'm sure she was overjoyed when my camera battery ran out and I had forgotten to bring the charger with us to the cabin.

Drew's sister and her family got to Salt Lake the same day Drew did, so we had a lot of fun with them too. The day after they all got there, his sister was on the local NBC station's morning show which was so cool. She has an awesome cooking blog and showed how to make this amazing cinnamon caramel corn. Here's the link to the recipe and her little TV clip if you want to check it out. It is super easy, melts in your mouth and is addicting-so watch out :) The next day we all went down to Provo. We visited the BYU campus which was fun and brought back a lot of memories. Kathryn missed her morning nap, so she ended up like this...
After seeing BYU we visited Drew's grandparents who live in Provo. It was fun to see them again and Kathryn loved playing with all of their stuffed animals. They even sent her home with one.

The next day we had a barbecue lunch with some friends and then went back down to Provo with our brother-in-law and another friend to see the BYU football game against Florida State. We got amazing tickets through a connection Drew's dad has. Our seats were pretty much at the 50-yard line about 30-40 rows up and came with wristbands to get a ton of free food. It was an awesome hookup. Here we are right before the game started (which is why we have smiles on our faces)...
Unfortunately the game did not go well at all and we left with frowns on our faces, but it was still cool to get to be in the stadium for a game again.

Kathryn's First Birthday

Kathryn turned one on September 6th. It's hard to believe that a whole year has gone by and we can't imagine life without her now. How did she go so quickly from this cute, quiet little baby...
...to this cute, energetic, sweet little girl?
We had a lot of fun celebrating. I didn't think she really needed any presents (besides the one I got on sale about 6 months ago--sorry Kat!), but Drew, being the sweet daddy he is, couldn't resist and went shopping for her. So she got lots of fun presents.

(She'll never remember that we wrapped them in Christmas wrapping paper, will she? :)

She loved unwrapping them, but was a little confused at first when we were giving her permission to tear paper. Here she is in her new stroller with all of her presents...
Besides the stroller, she got a new shirt for Halloween, new pj's (camo pattern with teddy bears-of course picked out by her dad), a little piano, a ball, a Winnie the Pooh honey jar w/finger puppets and a gift card to Old Navy (Drew said I can only help her use it--I got my own for my b-day :) She really likes all of her new toys and especially loved playing with the gift card. This girl is smart! :) After she opened her presents, we gave her her cake. I baked it, but Drew did the rest. This is what it looked before we gave it to her...
And this is what it looked like when she was done with it :)
She did a pretty good job demolishing it, huh :) We're glad she had a fun birthday.

My parents came for a couple of days a couple of weeks after her birthday, so we celebrated a little more with the presents they gave her.
Inside that box were a cute set of new pajamas (handmade by my mom) and this cute outfit:
Thanks mom and dad for the nice presents! They're perfect and so cute! My parents also brought with them the birthday present they had given me back in June (I didn't bring it home then b/c I was worried about checking it on the airplane)--A new sewing machine! Here's what it looks like...
I'm so excited to have my own sewing machine and keep thinking of all sorts of things I can make with it. I have a lot to learn, but my mom got me off to a great start with a lesson on how to use it. It's really nice and will be a lot of fun to have. Thanks mom and dad!!!

My Birthday

Alright, so I really tried, but I didn't get all caught up on here before our trip to Utah, so here's a little more catching up...

I turned 27 on August 26th. It's crazy to be getting older, but I still feel like I'm 21 or 22, so that's good. :) Drew served me an awesome breakfast-in-bed of a homemade breakfast burrito. It was really good. That night he slaved over the best dinner and dessert I've probably ever had. There is a dish that we LOVE at the restaurant Buca di Beppo called Chicken Saltimbocca. Drew is such a good cook that he figured out how to make it and it tasted even better than at the restaurant. It is sauteed chicken breast with prosciutto in a lemon butter sauce with artichokes and capers. Mmm, it was so good. My mouth is watering now just thinking about it :) We also had pasta, bread, and raspberry Italian sodas with our dinner. Here's what it all looked like...
And a little closer, so your mouth can start watering too :)
A few weeks before my birthday I remembered a dessert my mom made sometimes for my birthday growing up called icebox dessert. It has peppermint ice cream, chocolate, crushed vanilla wafers and almonds and a bunch of other stuff in it and is so good. So Drew called my mom for the recipe and made that for dessert. I had told Drew that all I wanted for my b-day was for him to make me a nice dinner. But of course, that amazing dinner wasn't good enough for him, so he also bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a gift card to Old Navy.
Also, due to unforeseen circumstances, I actually got to spend the whole day with him too! Thanks Drew for such an awesome birthday. You really made it special. I love you!