The Good Life

If you've never been to La Dolce Vita in Provo, I'd highly recommend it. I loooove Italian food! This is my favorite, it's called the Chef's Combo. I don't remember what all these pastas are called but if you love food so much you just can't decide, this is the dish for you. And Justin got shrimp alfredo. Yum!

35 Weeks Down

And 35 days to go. I am so ready to not be pregnant anymore. I wonder what it will be like to roll over in bed without having to take a break half way through. And I can't wait to hear my stomach growl and not think, 'that's not where my stomach goes'. And crunches, I miss doing crunches. I didn't love them before but now that I can't do them, I want to do them all the time. But my hair is growing at an incredible rate and I'm never, ever cold. Now if I could just keep her feet out of my ribs....

Big Fish

If you can't tell from the grin on his face, Justin is very proud of the fish he caught yesterday. 19 inches!

Real Life Picture Tag

Alright, I've been tagged so here goes. The rules are take pictures of the following things as they are, no cleaning or straightening. And then post them for the world to see.

Closet. Notice my heap of shoes on the floor. I've got to find a better method.

Fridge. That orange juice looks really good right now.

Sink. That's my ice cream maker. We made peach ice cream on Saturday. Yum!

Pantry. I wish I had a real one. Favorite shoes. Tell me these aren't the cutest? Laundry room. I'm glad I had to go down there. I had a load in the dryer I had completely forgotten about.Bathroom. I had no problem getting it all in one picture. Can they really call this a master bathroom? Here's my child. 7 more weeks!! She's rolling around, kicking ribs and stuff.Favorite room. I mostly just love this couch, so many places to sit, so little time.

Self portrait. I just woke up from a nap.

And now I tag Annie, Kirsta, Angela and anyone else who wants to do it. Try it, you'll like it.

One Year Older....

The big 2-5. 9 years driving, 7 years voting, 10 years since freshman year in high school. Where does all the time go? No longer considered early 20's. Checking the 18-24-year-old box is long gone. But I think I'm okay with it. I have a lot to show for my 25 years of life. In no particular order, here are my finest achievements.


Graduating college with absolutely no motivation my senior year.
Never breaking a bone.
Marrying Justin in the temple, who very well may be the most perfect man on earth.
Avoiding the flu.
Expecting child numero uno. (7 more weeks!)
Buying a house (okay, technically mortgaging the next 30 years of my life away).
Seeing Howard Jones in concert.


Here's my desk at work. My co-workers went all out. And yes, that is a 1.9 lb of Sour Patch Kids and a Pixie Stick pom-pom. They know me well.


And these are flowers Justin surprised me with.My cake and my nephew and cousin eating the gigantic roses on the cake. Yum! And notice the ballerina with melted limbs. She's a Syme Family tradition; gracing the cake of every birthday since 1999.

The Hearse

This is the rental car I got while mine is being restored to it's former glory. (Tip: don't go to Enterprise in SF...apparently they only have 1 car available at a time). I've never been a fan of the PT Cruiser, and as a driver of one for 24 hours now, I feel I have the authority to ask the question, "What was Chrysler thinking?" I think the pitch for the design went a little like this: We feel there are dozens of drivers out there wondering what it's like to be in a hearse and by-golly, Chrysler can give that man that experience while he's living and we're going to do it. I give you the PT Cruiser. The chassis of the Neon never looked so cryptic.


Here's the inside.

Just kidding. But in case you didn't believe me, here's what has to be the inspiration. I was singing "Now don't you laugh when the hearse goes by, cause you could be the next to die" all the way to work.

More fishing

Here's Nate and Justin's latest kill. They had to cut off the heads to get them in the bag so I guess that means they're pretty good size.

Unfortunate Event

So I'd like to give a shout-out to the lame-wad who hit me in my car and kept on driving. I'll assume it's just so much easier to do a U-turn from the right lane and waiting for me to pass was just too much. Little does he/she know by posting this, I've just got the word out to like a dozen people to be on the look-out for a maroon car with a temporary tag. Your days are numbered!

So here's the damage. It could have been worse, I know. But $1200 and 5 days in the shop! Thank goodness for insurance. And thanks Officer Mitchell of the Springville PD - your sympathetic "man that sucks" made me feel better than you know.

Potter's Ponds

When you can't think of the last time you were cold, it's time to head up the mountains. Justin and I went camping all by ourselves at Potter's Ponds. We got the car nice and dusty on the way up. Once the sun went down, we needed our sweatshirts and by the time it was dark, we needed the fire to stay warm.

Here's my fisherman. The waders were a garage sale find. Even though Justin discovered a few holes in some inconvenient spots, this picture alone makes them worth it.

And how pretty is this?

Rockband

We have garage bands and thanks to Rockband, we now have living room bands. These are their best rocker faces.

Brandon Moss's Wedding

This has nothing to do with the wedding. In fact, it has nothing to do with anything. Brad, Will and Justin found a float after the wedding luncheon. They wanted to change the letters to spell "Captain Sprinter" but no one had the tools to get the letters off. So they sat on it instead and threw bits of fortune cookies like candy.

I don't know if anyone else realizes this, but Moss found like his perfect match and her name is Cami. And she has the most gorgeous wedding dress I've seen in a long time.

Out of all the 'boys' we were only missing Ben (who had the only acceptable excuse and that's becoming a new father).

Trip to NY and Canada

Oh Canada! We just got back from visiting Justin's parents and brother Dallin. We flew into Syracuse NY, drove to Palmyra and Niagara Falls and then to his parent's house in Belleville, ON. We met some of their friends, went camping and boating and Justin went golfing twice so it was quite the fun-filled 9 days. I was reminded that Utah is a desert when I saw how big the rivers are there and how trees grow so plentiful and huge without having been planted and watered! But nothing compares to Utah mountains. And I couldn't believe how patriotic I felt seeing speed limit signs in MPH.

Here's the temple from the Smith farm in Palmyra.

The Sacred Grove was definitely my favorite part. I can see why Joseph went there to pray and believe it wasn't the first time he went there to ponder over things. Everyone needs their own thinking spot. Even though the farm and the grove have been owned by other people after the Smith's and before the church bought it, the grove has remained untouched.

The Palmyra Temple. So beautiful!

Here's all of us at the top of Hill Cumorah. I have to say I complained about the hike up the hill much less than Justin did and I'm the pregnant one!

Niagara Falls! So technically we were on the Canada side on Independence Day but we still saw the fireworks so I felt satisfied.

This is the view from a bridge over 1000 Islands which is between Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Anything that is above water 365 days a year and has 2 trees on it is considered an island. I wonder if all have names. I assumed that this is where they made the salad dressing but I didn't see any factories and was too shy to ask the locals, 'Hey where's the salad dressing factory so I can go on a tour?'

You know your rivers are big when they look more like lakes.

And here's some tubing videos for your viewing enjoyment.

Justin's Fish

Justin caught a few fish up Hobble Creek and decided to cook them on the bbq. He cleaned them up and was headed out to cook them but a couple slid right off the plate as he headed out the door. Dead fish isn't something I like to see on my kitchen floor but I just had to laugh and grab the camera.