My Guilty Pleasure

Okay so for most people, their guilty pleasure could be anything from golfing to working out to eating ice-cream. Well not mine, I have to admit that I didn't have a little guilty pleasure until I married Kyle. My guilty pleasure is called "Liquid Gold." What is "liquid gold" you ask?? It's only the best stuff on earth! It's orange juice, but not just any orange juice. This orange juice came straight from the orange itself. I have always hated orange juice; the pulp, the taste... ugh gross, but until I juiced my own oranges and tried freshly squeezed orange juice I didn't know what I was missing out on.

Normally Kyle and I don't juice "liquid gold" very often because when there are two of us drinking it we usually have to peel about 8 oranges. So when that rare question is asked in the morning, "Should we juice some oranges?" you know it's going to be a great day!! Kyle is really good about savoring every gulp in his glass, me on the other hand I chug the whole glass faster than I thought I could ever chug something. And then I spend the rest of the meal watching Kyle drink his liquid gold hoping that he offers me some of his, which normally doesn't happen but on rare occasions he shares :) which I don't blame him because this stuff is awesome! To make you readers even more jealous that you don't have any "liquid gold" right now, I decided to take some pictures so you could really see what you're missing out on. You're welcome!

So this is "Liquid Gold" in it's solid state... Ok so here's the oranges :)

Orange Peels

This is the thing that makes the magic happen! Best juicer on earth! 

Oranges all ready! Yay! 

Liquid Gold 

The best part of my day! 

My day could be a little better at this point! 

This, by far, is the worst part of my day! 

I never thought that I would ever write a whole blog on orange juice. Kyle and I love drinking this stuff. The best part is, is that by the end of breakfast I usually can say that I had 4-5 oranges and it's only 10 in the morning! This is an awesome way to get fruits and vegetables into your system without feeling like I just had 5 oranges! If you have a juicer and you don't use it much... SHAME ON YOU! just kidding, but seriously. And if you don't have a juicer... well feast your eyes on those pictures above cause you will never taste anything like it until you get a juicer.

Babymoon

Kyle and I recently had the opportunity to get away for a little bit and head off to San Diego for 6 days 5 nights. We had so much fun!! The best part about the whole trip was getting away from the cold and inversion that Utah was having! When Kyle and I left, the temperature in Salt Lake was near 0... if not in the negatives! It was bitter cold, especially because we had to be at the airport at 6 in the morning. After our plane landed in San Diego at 10 a.m., Kyle and I rented a car and we were off to the San Diego Zoo:

 This was a cool part in the zoo. We wanted to go watch the workers feed the lions, and so to get to the Lion cage we got to ride this escalator up the hill! It was awesome and super long! It was definitely nice because being 7 months pregnant and climbing a steep hill don't necessarily go hand-in-hand, so this was way nice!

The little panda's were so cute! I wanted to just climb in there and cuddle with them!

We ended up staying at the zoo until it closed and then we had to drive 2 hours to get to the condo that we were staying at. Well being the first day in San Diego, we didn't know how to time the traffic so that you don't get stuck in a massive traffic jam. Well apparently 6:00 p.m. is DEFINITELY NOT the time to travel on the free way! We learned that very quickly and for the rest of the trip didn't make that mistake again. After being in the car for forever-and-a-day, we finally made it to Huntington Beach where our good friends, Jordan and Maggie Porter, lent us their condo. It was so nice to have a home to come back to every night!

The 2nd day that we were there, we went to Disneyland! And yes, Kyle and I acted like kids in a candy shop! We were so excited to spend the whole day in Disney. The lines.... I mean what lines?!? There was hardly anyone at Disneyland! It was the perfect time to go. We ended up riding our favorite rides over and over!

 We ended up riding on Soarin' Over California 4 times! Each time we walked right on the ride. It was awesome!

The new Car's part of California Adventures was so much fun. We ended up standing in line for about 45 minutes for the new Car's ride, and that was the longest line that we ended up standing in the entire day. It was worth it to stand in line for 45 minutes for this ride! We wanted to get fast passes to go on it again, but because it was so popular the fast passes ended up "selling out."

 So fun!! It was one of the funnest rides we rode the whole day! If you haven't been to Disney in a while, it's definitely worth it just for this ride!

 The bug's ride.

 Apparently they were doing construction.

On our 3rd day there, we went down to Sea World. Neither Kyle nor I could remember if we had ever been to Sea World before, and if we have it was with our families when we were little. So it was fun to go somewhere that neither Kyle or I was familiar with.

 The seal show was very funny!

 Going through the tunnel under the sharks! Very neat!

 The underbelly of a shark

 This was BY FAR the highlight of my day, possibly the trip!! We got to go see the dolphins and I was shocked how close we could get to the dolphins! The trainers ended up training them as we were standing there and one trainer ended up bringing a dolphin close to the edge where Kyle and I got to pet him! It was SO COOL!! We went all the way down to Cabo on a cruise and didn't get this close to the dolphins! Very impressed with Sea World!

 We got to see a celebrity! SHAMU!

Our 4th day there, we didn't really have any plans so we decided to drive to Los Angeles and go to Chinatown. I had never been to Chinatown before and being with Kyle (who speaks Mandarin) it was so fun! Kyle spoke to a lot of people in Chinese, and I kept laughing because it sounded like he was making up words... and then all of a sudden the people would respond because they understood him! haha wow I guess he really does speak another language! I loved seeing Kyle interact with them. You could tell that the people there were impressed with his Chinese. One person complimented him on how well he speaks. Kyle was in Heaven. He kept telling me that he felt like he was back on his mission! It was fun to see Kyle in this kind of atmosphere.

Our 5th day there, we caught up with Kyle's brother, his wife and their two cute kids! We all went to Cornado's Island, which is near San Diego, and walked around on the beach and inside the famous Cornado Hotel. It was way fun catching up and spending the day with them.

We walked past a candy shop, and of course you can't just walk past a candy shop you have to go in. Well here in my hand I am holding what looks like... ahh about 5 pieces of candy. 10 dollars later...... oookkkkk SUPER EXPENSIVE CANDY! Oh well, you can't walk into a candy store without walking out with candy! Totally worth it!

 On our last day there, Kyle and I ended up spending the day in Old Town San Diego. We walked around all the old shops and stores. It was neat, it felt like we were back in the old days! Kyle's grandpa and my dad love working with leather, so when we saw an old leather shop we obviously had to walk in and look around. We tried on hats... Kyle always looks good in hats, me on the other hand, I dunno if it's because I never wear hats or because of what i'm wearing but I look like a grandpa!! I was laughing so hard because my shirt all of a sudden looked like this old grandpa-ish sweater! 

They turned an old hotel into a restaurant that you can eat in. We really enjoyed the feel of this part of town! For a split second, the world around us wasn't all business and super stressed, it was laid back and time didn't matter.

 We went to Huntington Beach (Possibly made it onto the Hollister camera). It was so nice just to be able to wear a jacket and not freeze to death! It was pretty warm near the beach with the wind and everything, but once the sun went down it got down to the 50's..... I know... living in Utah at the moment, 50's sounds way nice right about now!

One of our last night's in San Diego, we had the opportunity to go to the San Diego temple! It was GORGEOUS! When driving on the freeway, we came around this bend and BOOM there was the temple all lite up! I have seriously never seen a temple this pretty! All I can say is, the church is true!

We had the best babymoon! We made memories that we will never forget and always cherish! We took advantage of every second that we had on this vacation and in the end, although I got shinsplints and hurt my feet really bad to the point that I was limping at the end of every day, it was worth it! We would go back to San Diego in a heartbeat! I love Kyle so much and I am so glad that we were able to spend time together just one-on-one before our little boy comes!

2012 in Review

I can't believe that it is already 2013! Holy cow where did 2012 go? I heard the saying a few weeks ago that said, "Each year Christmas comes sooner and sooner." At first it was like, uhh no there are the same amount of days each year so how is it possible that Christmas comes sooner every year.... but it's so true! I don't know where time has gone! 2012 was a great year! I met my best friend, he proposed, we got married which in turn made me a mother (step-mom) to an amazing little girl, and now we are waiting for our little boy to come! This year was definitely a year of a lot of firsts for me! I wish I had more pictures of 2012; taking more pictures is something I need to work on! But here is our year in review:

I met and fell in love with this man! 

I attended one semester at Southern Utah University, and this is how we talked for about 4 months... every... single.... night..... it got old fast! 

In St. George, they have a batting cage so Kyle took me there! First time for me in a batting cage! I learned a lot about myself that day: 

1: I don't like being in an enclosed space with softballs flying at your face. 

2: I am very uncoordinated.

3: I was a lot more athletic in high school!

At this point.... I didn't know what I was in for. It was really fun though! 

Over Valentines Day weekend, Kyle came down to Cedar and we got engaged! It was the best night of my life!

This is the picture he gave me right before he got down on his knee.

 Knowing that it was Valentine's Day weekend, and wanting to do something special for Kyle I made A TON of chocolate covered strawberries. Well after we ate about 5 of them we were done eating them and didn't know what to do with the other 3 dozen of them. So of course I had a brilliant idea that we should put them all in the vita-mix and make a yummy chocolate covered strawberry shake!!! Good idea right?!?.......

 The shake was absolutely disgusting! It was so thick and did not have a good taste to it!

Kyle took me on a date where we hiked Dixie rock. I have never done that before. It was really fun! 

Kyle loves golfing... so let's just say that I have been golfing more times in one year then I have my entire life!! Well that's mainly because I have never been golfing before, and technically I still haven't. All I do is drive the golf cart around... which is AWESOME!! I almost encouraged Kyle to go golfing more so I could drive the golf cart! So fun!

My golfing experience. 

On May 11th, I made the best decision of my life and married this amazing man! We got married in my parents backyard. The weather was PERFECT. We couldn't have asked for a better day to get married. I am so blessed to have met Kyle and now privileged to be his wife!

 Another amazing thing that happened in 2012, is becoming a mother to this little angel. Brittin is so sweet. Honestly I can't imagine my life without Kyle or Brittin. They both complete my life.

For our Honeymoon we went to Cabo on a cruise. It was a blast!

This was taken as we were waiting for our shuttle to take us to the cruise. 

Kyle had the opportunity to paddle board for the first time in Cabo. He did really good! 

While in Cabo, Kyle and I went on our first zip lining experience! It was so much fun! We did about 12 different zip lines and 2 repels. This was definitely the highlight of the trip!

Another one of my firsts this year was going up the ski lift during the summer. I have only been on the Park City ski lifts during the winter during ski/snowboard season, but never during the summer. It was so pretty once we got to the top! 

We found out that we were expecting a little baby! We were shocked at first, but could not be more ecstatic about it!

One of my weird cravings while pregnant, pomegranates. 

Carved pumpkins. I learned that I am very slow when it comes to carving pumpkins! Or that Kyle is super talented and can carve a pumpkin in 10 minutes and have it look amazing. 

We cut down our first Christmas tree and decorated it! 

We had the opportunity to attend the Christmas Devotional in Salt Lake!  

2012 has been an amazing year! Full of ups and downs. I wouldn't change anything! I love Kyle and Brittin so much and cannot wait for March 25th to get here so we can hold our baby boy!