Festival of Trees

One of my friends at work has a young nephew who is a cancer survivor. The people at Primary Children's were so amazing with their family that the family has done everything they possibly could to give back to the hospital. One of those things was putting on the Festival of Trees. My friend is on the committee and had some discounted tickets to go so I bought a bunch of tickets! All for a good cause :)

With Ben's work schedule, the only time we could go was on a Friday night... the busiest time of the week! It was so packed and crazy but we had fun. We walked around and looked at all the trees (ALL OF THEM), some of the wreaths that they had up, and a couple of the gingerbread houses. Peyton did a couple of the crafts they had for kids and then we watched a dance show. Peyton went right up to the front of the stage and danced with the performers (along with all the other of kids...). After we were done, we went and bought a couple of caramel apples to finish the trip. So yummy!! And again, all for a good cause.

There were so many people that she needed to hold 2 hands...

And of course, the only picture we took together is blurry... 

Oh well. 

Next year, my friend and I (and a couple of other people) are going to enter a tree together. So excited!!

Thanksgiving!

My absolute FAVORITE holiday is Thanksgiving!! The first year Ben and I got married, we did our own Thanksgiving and it was amazing. We haven't changed the menu since then and probably won't for a long LONG while (except the rolls... I can't ever make rolls! But this year, I was successful! Yes!). Usually, we invite all of our friends who are unable to go home for the holiday over to our place but this year, everyone had a place to go to so it was just us! We had so much food and even more leftovers. It was awesome.

The Menu:

Mashed Potatoes 

Honey Ham

Maple-brined Turkey

Sausage, Cranberry, Apple Stuffing

Green Bean Casserole

Maple Pecan pie

Apple pie

Yams

Rolls

Creamed Corn

Cranberry Sauce - from the can AND the bag 

(because you need the one from the can for leftover turkey sandwiches, right?)

3 different choices of drinks.... and no, not water, milk, or juice... haha

Temple Square

She loves her Auntie "Anna"

Best Friends

Our whole group... Sorry its a little blurry!

YAY!!!!!!!

Just a few random facts:

• It's the 4th most populous city in the nation (trailing only New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago). 
• It hosts the biggest rodeo in the world. 
• More than 90 languages are spoken here. 
• It has one of the youngest populations in the nation. 
• Residents of this city eat out more than any other US city. 
• It is illegal to sell Limburger cheese on Sundays. 
• With 634 square miles, this city could contain the US cities of New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, AND Miami. 
• In this state, when two trains meet each other at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a full stop and neither shall proceed until the other has gone. 
• It is illegal to take more than 3 sips of beer at a time while standing. 
• And finally, it is REQUIRED for criminals to give their victims 24 hour notice, either orally or in writing, and to explain the nature of the crime to be committed. 

Yup, Glenn has been called to serve in the Texas Houston East mission and will enter the MTC January 9th. He is going to be such an amazing missionary. I am so proud of him and the example he has shown. I won't go into a ton of details about this incredible journey because its personal and private to my family but I will say that the thing that impresses me about my brother more than anything else is that he refused to serve a mission until he KNEW 100 percent that he was completely ready to be a full-time missionary. In the past, most 19 year old boys in our Church have gone on missions because that was what was expected of them at that time. And I'm not trying to diss or down on that at all. I'm glad those missionaries went out at that time.

For Glenn, however, it just wasn't the time for him. And for Glenn, that was perfect. There is no doubt in my mind that he was saved to be a missionary now. I'm so proud of him. He's an amazing person, inside and out. Glenn is so talented and so incredibly smart. He's such a great uncle and brother. I love him so much and will miss him! Can you believe that Peyton will be 4 years old by the time he comes back?!

The people of Houston Texas are lucky that such an amazing person will be serving them for 2 years.

Salary!!

Finally, I got a job that pays salary.... Well, I got the job almost 2 months ago but I need to write about this!

I'm now a supervisor at the treatment center that I work at. And I LOVE it. It's definitely more responsibility but it's also a lot more fun! I'm able to have more time to do what I do best: be creative! It's tough because now its up to me to make the hard calls but I've been here for almost 5 years and I've learned a lot so I feel confident and comfortable doing it. Ben and I are so excited too... It looks like a car, a house, Ben's education, and a little extra spending are all in the workings for our near future!

Is that too greedy? selfish? both?! Probably... but honestly, ever since I graduated from BYU it was "Sorry, you're too polite" or "Sorry, it was between you and someone else less qualified/experienced than you" or "Sorry, we just hate you." haha, not really...

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Things that have happened at work recently:

- A girl ran away... This was a big deal because a boy ran away from the boy's campus and did some super bad things. Luckily, we found her an hour later. She was walking down the freeway looking for some smokes. This girl is so low-functioning so when the cops brought her back, she literally had NO IDEA that she did anything wrong!!

- I've made up a new schedule for the whole school to follow! This was the first big thing that I did that made me look good to the higher ups :) Aww yeah!!

- I'm not sure exactly WHAT I did but I guess I impressed someone high up (trust me, it wasn't the new schedule thing that I came up with)... they gave me a $50 gift card to the mall, a $50 gift card to Outback Steakhouse, and 2 movie tickets. For my job, that's pretty good... (The usual rewards they give to staff are boxes of candy or something lame like that so I thought that was pretty awesome)

- So far I've been kicked and scratched. Girls have also tried to bite me and hit me... 

- One girl was "possessed" by "demons"... And it actually scared me a little. Eek!

- My goal for work: Make sure Investment is a place where girls don't want to be and make the open dorms a place where girls really do want to be! (Investment is a place where we need to watch girls who are more high risk... like our runners, fighters, and the sneaky ones. The open dorms aren't as secure and locked down.) What I've tried so far: Come up with activities like service projects, game nights, movie marathons, crafts, etc. One of the dorms go and read bedtime stories to the early adolescent campus every other week. Holidays are super fun too! For Halloween, we did different activities on the dorms and ended the night with a movie in the courtyard. It was epic :)

- We're having a pilates instructor come in and teach the girls how to be healthy both in their bodies and in their lifestyles. The girls will have a ton of fun and hopefully, it'll motivate them to make the right changes in life!

A couple things that I love about my job: the people I work with are AWESOME!! and also, trying to make a difference in these girls' lives. It is so sad to learn their stories and hear about their experiences. About 90% of our population come from broken families... They've never had anyone read bedtime stories to them. No one has ever shown them how much potential they have. Some of these girls are SO talented and they don't even know it! Not too many of our girls know what its' like to legitimately be loved... They don't know what it feels like to have someone really care for them. Don't get me wrong... These girls can be vicious and hurtful. I've been told some awful, horrible things that I wouldn't want anyone to ever have to hear. But when it comes down to it, I come home and all I want to do is hold my own daughter a little bit closer and a lot of bit longer. 

Anyways... job. salary. Fist pump.

I survived.

Ben and I have often talked about how we'd survive a zombie apocalypse.

And after watching hours of Walking Dead and other random zombie movies, we've come up with a couple of rules for surviving:

#1 - Cardio

#2 - Wear your seatbelt

#3 - Guns/Machete/knife training

#4 - Stay in a group

#5 - Don't be the stupid one in the group who thinks that you can take on the zombies by yourself... Because there's always a stupid one in the group who thinks that they can take on the zombies by themselves AND THEY CAN'T!

#6 - Know when to be quiet... because lots of people don't know when to be quiet!! And then they usually die.

#7- Lock the door behind you

#8 - Be prepared

So I decided to try my hand at rule #1: Cardio. This is our #1 rule because its so important. How do you expect to run away from zombies if YOU CAN'T RUN?!

Kamry sent me an email a month ago and asked if I wanted to sign up for a 5k with her. Since I've sorta slacked off on the getting in shape thing... I said yes! And then I looked to see which one it was: the Provo Canyon Escape. Escape? Yes, escape... As in escape from the zombies. Here's how the race works: Basically, you run a race and there are "zombies" who will give you a couple minute headstart and try to catch you. If they get to you and pull your flag, you're infected and don't win the coveted survivor t-shirt. 

At first, I was so excited for the race. And then! My sister, Riena, and her friend Mira decided that they wanted to be some of the zombies so they emailed the race coordinators. They got a response back and it went something like this (PS. this really isn't the actual email but it gets the same message across)...

Dear Participant, 

Thank you for your interest in being a Running Zombie for the upcoming Provo Canyon Escape. For your information, we are asking that those who would like to be a Running Zombie RUN A MILE IN ABOUT 5 MINUTES OR LESS!!!! So please be freaking fast...

For those who are unable to run a mile IN 5 MINUTES OR LESS, you can be a Walking Zombie. 

Sincerely, 

The Race Coordinators

Um... WHAT?!?!?! I dont know why but for some reason, I got SO terrified, nervous, scared for my life. Let me explain: The fastest I've ever run a mile was 6:30.... in middle school....1997....15 years ago (holy poop... has it been 15 years?!)!! Since then, I've gained vast amounts of knowledge and .... weight. Yup, I'm definitely not what I weighed 15 years ago. And with that comes bad knee problems, lack of quickness/nimbleness... you know, the normal things that come with... ahem... aging. Moral of this slightly embarrassing story: I'm not that fast anymore. Like, I'm lucky if I run a mile under 10 minutes now.

And just so you know... it wasn't even about the t-shirt (and if you know me at all, it's almost ALWAYS about the t-shirt). I think I either (1) watched WAY too many shows of the Walking Dead or (2) took the part about getting caught by a zombie too literally and it terrified me!! haha :) Like... the thought of a zombie catching me, biting me and infecting me was seriously stressing me out!!

Race day is quickly approaching and I know I should START running... but somehow, things like Hawaii and work and catching up on my TV shows and my couch get in the way. Ugh... Hawaii... I think I gained 20 lbs while down there!!

One of my co-workers/friends, Steve, said that he'd switch shifts with me so that I could make it to the race. So I go into work (which by the way, was a completely CRAZY day!!) and as soon as it hits 4:00pm, I'm clocked out and racing to get home to get ready for the zombies. Oh man... The entire time all I can think of are ways to get out of the race because I'm SO nervous!! (The plan I was going to go with was to get my race packet and then give it to Ben who would then run it and survive win.)

As we're waiting for the race to start, a few more race facts come up that both terrify AND relieve me:

1. At the start of the race, you run .25 of a mile TOWARDS the zombies who are waiting for you at a turn in the course... and you can hear them screaming/yelling for you at the race start.

2. The running zombies include BYU Men's Track and Field team.... one of the guys on the team can run a 5k in 14 minutes flat. Seriously, that guy has to be FLYING!!

3. The zombies will give all the runners a 5 minute head start... which starts as soon as the race begins! Not when the last runner crosses the start line and not when you first see the zombies... Nope, as soon as they say go!

4. The zombies are only allowed to pull 5 flags... Thank goodness!! There are only ~ 40 zombies and 500 runners. My chances of surviving are looking a lot better!!

The race began and surprisingly, I didn't do as bad as I thought I would :) The last time I ran was about 3 months ago... so I was definitely out of shape and not ready. BUT!! I finished the race and.....

I survived!!

But most importantly, I finished the race IN UNDER 30 MINUTES!! Which has been a goal of mine since forever ago... Awesome :)

Right after we crossed the finish line

Mira (aka. the laughing zombie) -

 Towards the end of the race, she hid behind a car parked along the course

 and jumped out and scared me SO bad!!

The "zombies" were ruthless... they even attacked the children!! 

But don't worry... she told them "Peas no no! (Please no no!)"

Our group with the coveted Survivor shirt!!

Riena - 

She was hiding a few cars up from Mira who scared me... 

So literally, as soon as I was done laughing that Mira scared me, 

Riena jumped out and grabbed me!

Terrified me!! :)

Getting Infected

So. Much. Fun.

Halloween

Seriously... something must be wrong with me because I am not taking as many pictures as I used to!!

And I am beating myself up for not taking any pictures of Peyton in her full costume or of me... Oh well.

I was originally not going to dress up... Until my neighbor, Ezra, came over Halloween morning and showed me what he was going to be! He went to the store Taylor Maid and paid $50 for them to paint his face into looking like an old man. Seriously, it turned out sooo good. He didn't want to be the only dressing up for work so last minute (which is what most of our costumes in this household usually are), I decide to be Waldo. All I needed to do was buy some glasses since I could make up the costume from things I had laying around the house. I went to the store and pick up the glasses. As I'm standing in line to check out, Effie Trinket from the Hunger Games walks by me. Oh my gosh... That's what I want to be! So I grabbed her and had her show me how she put together her costume.

I definitely paid way too much money for the costume but it turned out amazing!!! This picture was taken after I got home from work so the paint is fading, the wig is coming off, and my eyelashes were starting to get REALLY annoying.

Everyone at work LOVED the costume... and I was pretty proud of it myself :) Lots of the kids called me Effie all day. Cross your fingers that I win the costume contest!! haha

I wanted Peyton to be Boo again from Monsters Inc. but I couldn't find the costume (it was a little big on her last year so i though it'd fit perfect this time around... oh well!). Luckily, Ashley got Peyton some dress up dresses and it came with a pair of wings so Peyton was a fairy princess. She loved it and kept showing us how cute she was in the outfit :) I couldn't take her trick-or-treating because I worked but Riena took Peyton to Mira's work and then Ben took her trick-or-treating at night around a neighborhood (not ours though... I don't trust ours!! haha)

Luckily, he got a couple of pictures of Peyton knocking on some doors. Peyton got mad so she wasn't wearing her wings.... so she was just a princess. She would run up to the door, knock, and yell "Treat! Treat!" (that's how she says Trick or Treat... or else she's just demanding you only give her a treat... haha!!)

Ben said there was this one house that was completely dark on the inside... except the porch light was on. A group of kids ran in front of  Peyton, knocked on the door, and yelled "Trick or treat!" The door slowly opened and all you could see was this scary mask of a skull... It started filling up with "blood" and then drained out or something like that. The guy handed the kids some candy and was about to shut the door until he saw Peyton standing behind the group a little nervous about what to think... He took off the mask and then Peyton started laughing HYSTERICALLY!! Like, Ben has never heard Peyton laugh so hard! I guess she just thought it was super funny for a regular guy to be under that mask!!

Hawaii

Some things we did:

Swap Meet
Sunset Beach
Pali Lookout - a disappointment... I was trying to be a good tour guide and we go there and what do you know... NO WIND! What the heck...
Waimea - HUGE waves
Dole Plantation - riding the train, Dole Whip
Castle Beach
Watching Connor and Rose at the Night Show
BYU-H campus
the Haunted Lagoon - surprisingly, pretty scary!! And I've never been to a Haunted House where they're allowed to actually touch you! They tried to grab us and pull us into the water off of the canoes...
Wedding day festivities - the groom trying to break into the house and get the bride
Temple
Amy and Keanue's wedding reception - the lion dance, polynesian dancers (including a fire knife dance), and fireworks!!! Oh yeah, and super yummy food :)
Visiting Family
Visiting my Grandpa's and sisters' grave
Shopping
Eating
Being lazy and hanging out... love that part!!

now get ready for a lot of pictures....

Peyton was getting hungry so I bought her some mango... BEST MANGO EVER!!!

Sunset Beach

Dole Whip

Sooo excited for the "Choo Choot!" (i don't know why she puts a t at the end of it...)

Cheesy!!

After the train ride

Peyton was getting bored of all the wedding day things... I couldn't find her for a second and started to panic. I look out in the backyard and she's just chilling on the lawn chairs. Relaxing!!

Waimea

We made a little kiddie pool for Peyton... she didn't want to play in it so I turned it into my chair. 

Peyton would not stop hugging/kissing these little girls... It was so cute!!

Sad that Riena couldn't make it :(

And to top my whole trip off.... I got to drive this baby home!! Yes, this was my dream car in High School: Bright red Ford Mustang Convertible