Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Cody's birthday surprise

I have never really surprised Cody before and wanted to for his birthday this year. I purchased tickets for The Killers concert at UVU on November 30th the day tickets were released. I wanted the best seats I could afford so I was home and on the computer at 10 am ready to buy. All Cody knew was that he needed to be home from work at a certain time so that we could leave. I got our friends the Barkers in on my secret when I found out that they had bought tickets to the concert as well. We were good friends in our Provo ward 9 years ago and have only seen their family a couple times since we moved to dental school. Paul actually designed my www.runningwithlisa.com webpage.
 Part of the surprise was meeting Paul and Ang at Cody's favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse, for dinner before the show. I ended up having to tell Cody about dinner because we left our house late. Paul put the Killers ticket in Cody's napkin and when he sat down he found the tickets. I was proud of my stealth skills and we had a great dinner and fun night at the show.
 I only know a few Killers songs, but the light shows were fun to watch. A couple songs had strobe lights and it's a good thing I'm still on anti seizure medicine otherwise I could see how easy it would be to produce one.

Traffic was a beast in Utah Valley, but thankfully our babysitter had no problem getting home so late. Happy 34th birthday Cody! I made a fun collage on facebook with pictures of Cody each year on his birthday. Paul jokingly called it the evolution of a baldman. If I knew how to put a collage on here I'd show you all, but alas, I'm not that tech savvy.
Cody's Mom's birthday is right before Cody's so we had a celebratory dinner the Sunday after. Blake actually blew out some candles before the song was over. He's never done that before so of course we thought it was super cute.

Thanksgiving and Tree

I got together with 2 of my really good friends before Thanksgiving to do a craft project I saw on the internet. Lindsey and I met at Karen's for a morning of fun with our kiddos.

Oreo, candy corn turkeys.
 Karen and I were Lindsey's bridesmaids 11 years ago. Both girls actually dated my brother and we're still good friends after all these years.
My kids have really wanted to run a race with me after all the running I did this year for my 1/2 marathon. Midway has an annual 5K Turkey Trot and I signed Tucker and Aubrey up for the race with me. Tucker wanted to begin the race at the head of the pack and he ran with a friend. I never saw him until Aubrey and I finished. She did awesome! She had an 11:19 minute mile pace. Pretty good for a 5 year old. We passed a lot of adults at the end and they asked me if she ran the entire thing, and if so, that fast. I was a proud Momma.
 
Our house is great for hosting and we hosted another Thanksgiving this year. I think I've hosted more than 1/2 the Thanksgivings since I've been married. Cody's family were the guests this time. We cooked the turkey and mashed potatoes and everyone brought the rest.
 From left to right we have Kristin, Spencer (our sister in law, Marisa's, brother), uncle Robert, Cody, Cerola, Mickey and Chris. We had great food and fun visiting all day long. I did back my car into Chris's that night when I was going out for some early black Friday shopping. It was really dumb because I even have a backup camera on my car. I blame it on being dark, his car is dark and I didn't know he parked on the driveway. Oh well, that's what insurance is for and at least no damage was done to my car.
 Saturday of that weekend we took our annual drive up by Wolf Creek Pass to find the perfect Christmas tree. Cody is wearing camo, so it's hard to see him, but he's cutting down the tree on the left, next to Tucker.
 We obtain our tree permits each fall from Soldier Hollow for $10. It beats buying a tree, although a pre-lit tree sounds nice sometimes. I had the privilege of putting the lights on this year.
 We have 11 foot ceilings and are not able to put our star on this year due to the height of the tree.
 This is our first year putting lights on the outside of our house. We have one more higher gable section that Cody will put lights on next year.

Hawaii

Blogger has been a pain lately. I tried to upload pictures and I was told that I had exceeded my limit of photo storage and needed to purchase more. A friend on facebook had the same problem so I tried some of her suggestions. They worked, but I ended up deleting some folders of pictures that I didn't intend to. Thank goodness for backups.
This vacation to Hawaii was so relaxing and needed. It was definitely a bucket list trip and once we found out about my cancer we knew that once I was healthy we needed to go. We timed the trip around chemo treatments so that I'd be feeling my best. It was perfect.

We left Wednesday morning, November 7th and arrived in Oahu that evening. One of Cody's patient's huband was a flight attendant on our flight and we enjoyed some extra perks like free headsets, snacks and magic tricks. Our flight was direct so we had a lot of time to read, watch the clouds and ocean below us and sleep. It was a sunny 80 + degrees when we landed, so we picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel on Waikiki beach. We received a bunch of wooden bead leis and we were off to find dinner. The food is SOO expensive in Hawaii. Cody and I were blessed to have taken this trip for free by using points from his business credit card, but the cost of food at the restaurants was a lot. I don't eat a lot, especially since having cancer. One of my side effects is a loss of appetite, and even though I wasn't on chemo while we were on vacation, I still can't eat an entire meal - thus a lot of wasted food. It drives me crazy!

Our partial ocean view room.


Our first full day we hiked to the top of Diamond Head Crater.
This is one of the the defense bunkers carved out and used during WWII.
The flowers are so beautiful. I loved going around most corners and seeing Hibiscus plants. My yard would be full of them if they grew in Utah.
We went to the Dole movie theater complex in Honolulu  and watched the Skyfall James Bond movie one afternoon. Then we found the King Kamehameha statue from the tv show Hawaii 5-0.
Sunset from our balcony. Cute Asian girls got married every day at either our hotel or the one next door. What a beautiful backdrop.
 Cody and I took surfing lessons our first day in Hawaii too. No time to waste. I purchased a Groupon before we left for a discounted class. It was just Cody and I. The instructor had his friend come and surf and take pictures/videos for us. I pulled out my very unflattering one piece swimsuit from 10 years ago so that I didn't run the risk of losing anything. Surprisingly to me, I actually got up and loved it.
 Cody was a natural. He got this sweet shot with the sailboat and rainbow.
 Our last couple surfs we tried surfing together. It's a lot harder surfing next to someone and trying hard not to run into them or smash your body against the reef. Awesome morning though. Our hotel we stayed at is the one right behind my head in the picture.
 This is a picture of our favorite snorkeling place. We tried Hanauma Bay and had fun, but it's super crowded with not as many fish as we expected. This gem of a place is called Kahe Point Beach. We stopped here in the morning on our way to the north shore and stopped again on our way back because it was so amazing. Tons of colorful fish, sea turtles and very warm water. Unfortunately, we didn't buy an underwater camera so no pictures of the sealife, but if you are headed to Hawaii, it's a must see/do that most tourists don't know about. Luckily I have a husband that researches like crazy.

We decided to hit up Pearl Harbor on Friday. Veterans Day was the following Monday and we figured we better choose the day less people were likely to be around. We got our tickets with no problem and enjoyed a beautiful morning. I am a dummy when it comes to history, I actually own the book, US History for Dummies, because I can't remember anything. I've seen the movie Pearl Harbor, but it was amazing to see in person and learn about.

 They had a couple of the actual anchors from USS Arizona. They are massive.
 Cody with some torpedoes.
 The Memorial.
 It was interesting to learn that if you were a member of the crew and pass away today, you can be cremated and have your ashes sent back to your ship.

We drove to the Laie Temple and did some temple work while we were there. Beautiful temple with gorgeous views of the ocean out front.
 
 After the temple, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We were able to watch the canoe parade of the different islands. There are different sections of the center that talk about the different islands and cultures. The dancers below depict Tahiti.

The luau dinner was sold out, but we ate from their buffet and watched the "Ha, Breath of Life" show.

 When we arrived at our hotel the first day, there was a big block of sand out front. By the end of our stay, this is what had been created. The detail was really amazing.

 On our last day we didn't fly out until late evening, so after we checked out of our hotel we drove up to the Pali lookout. It was extremely windy, but beautiful.
 Paradise.
Thank you to our parents for watching our kids. It would not have been possible to go without you.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

This is Halloween

 
We bought tickets to go to the annual Warren Miller movie in Park City. Tucker and Aubrey came with us too, so that we could get a free ski pass for them too. My cousin and his wife were going as well, so we met up with them.

 My Mom took all the girls in the family to Witches Night Out at Gardner Village the weekend before Halloween. My Mom and sister made our hats and skirts.

 Halle and Aubrey. We borrowed Aubrey's costume from a friend.
 The Foster women.
 My Dad tagged along and took pictures of us everywhere we went.
 All the girls.
 Grandma and Grandpa Grant drove down to see us all.
 My parents threw a Halloween Family Night party. We ate dinner and saw all my Dad's Halloween gadgets. He goes all out for this day. He has coffins, flying ghosts, sound effects, moving candelabras, bats and more. The kids loved the bubble fog machine he had this year.

 Isn't Blake the saddest yet cute little cow. My friend gave me the costume. It barely fit him. Poor kid went to a bunch of houses at first, and ended up in the stroller for the rest of the night. I'd wheel the stroller up to a door and he'd still get his treat. Trick or treat wasn't in his vocabulary this year.
 Neighborhood gang. We've got a pineapple in the back and 2 gangsta kids. Aubrey and Tucker decided to be the same as last year. Tinkerbell and a bat. Cole is Spiderman and little Blakey the cow.
 Cody made some awesome chili for dinner and we invited our good friends, the Ashursts, over for dinner. I decided after trick or treating that I didn't want to do the dishes. Well, this is what happened to our sink later that night. Our sink fell in. We went a day without water until Cody had time to do a temporary fix. Thankfully our dishwasher works great and scrubbed that day old chili left in the bowls, right out.