Life in St. George

So nothing exciting, but I just have to say how beautiful St. George is. Today it was 61 degrees and I enjoyed a wonderful run in the 61 degrees. I am pretty sure that is the perfect weather for running. I hate not being close to my family, but being here in this wonderful weather with clean air makes me happy. Anyway with that out of the way...

Greg and I have wanted to make salmon for like our whole marriage, but have always been too intimidated (and I didn't want my house to smell fishy). Good news! We bought salmon at Costco this weekend, cooked it up, and it was excellent! The house did smell a little like fish, but not bad. The smell was worth the wonderful tasting salmon. I know not all of you are fish lovers, but we really like it and now that I know we can make it, I'm sure we will be having it more often. Now the next thing I want to conquer is making rolls. I just need to visit Lara for some lessons. You up to that sis? She has so much knowledge to share with her favorite sister. I'm ready to soak it all up!

To sum it all up...if you like clear skies, warm weather, and yummy salmon for dinner come visit us here in St. George!

I hate playing catch up!!

Ever since my last post I have just felt like blogging was a chore, and who likes chores. Not me! So it's been well over a month since my last post and now I am ready to catch everyone up on our not so eventful life.

First I have to document about all the snow we had in St. George. This is outside our front door. We had a good five inches. Lucky for me, I worked the night it snowed so I got to clean off all the snow on the car at 6:30 am before I could come home. It was not fun!

On December 20th Greg and I celebrated our three year anniversary. Wow how time flies. I feel so lucky to have spent the last three years with him. It's been great! We went to Mesquite to the buffet at the Eureka. We had never been there before so we decided to try it, and it was just nice to get out of town for the night. On Fridays they have sea food, which means all you can eat crab legs! It was a hit! I think Greg had over 20 crab legs.

When we got back to St. George we decided to go the the temple grounds and see the nativity and lights. It's no temple square, but it was fun!

CHRISTMAS!

We had a good Christmas, besides all the driving in the snow! We made it safely to all our destinations so what more can you ask for!? We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with the Orton's. We had the traditional Bethlehem dinner on Christmas eve. This is Greg's favorite tradition. It's been a fun, new tradition for me, but I am not such a fan of eating with my hands. Thanks to Kathryn those who would like to use utensils may. I had my first experience with lamb at the Bethlehem dinner. It was not so bad. I don't think I would ever order it at a restaurant or cook it for dinner, but it was not bad! Greg on the other hand loved it, and ate it with his hands! We woke up Christmas morning and opened presents. Then Kathryn made a wonderful brunch! (Which included Honey Baked Ham! Thanks Kathryn)!

I am really sad that this is the only picture we got while at Greg's house. I don't even know what we were doing in the picture. I know Emily is going to hate me, but hey Em at least your not front and center side profile!

We arrived at the new and improved Oyler house on Christmas afternoon. My mom has spent the last six months remodeling and adding on to her house. It turned out so great! We love it mom! Everyday we were there the boys spent time outside shoveling and knocking down icicles. One day they spent two hours shoveling off the roof, and this was the giant pile of snow on my mom's new deck. No ladder was needed to get off the roof, they all just stepped right onto the pile of snow!

We had fun opening presents the day after Christmas. It really felt like having two Christmas's. Of course we had lots of good food, good treats, good fun, and great memories. I love going to my mom's house because she always makes the meals that I love that I never make for myself. We found that the new hangout is my mom's new master bedroom. All the kids wanted to shower and bath in her new master bathroom (big and little kids)! How could you not want to, it's like a spa! We had fun just hanging out and not having to be anywhere. I don't think we left the house the whole time we were there!

This is my cute grandma! I love her so much and love getting to visit with her. I don't see her very often now that I live in St. George, but every minute I get with her I cherish!

My mom got Mario Cart for Christmas, and these four played it non-stop!

Now the holidays are over and I am feeling the holiday let down. We took down all our Christmas decorations yesterday and our house feels bare. The holidays are filled with so many emotions and this year, with the passing of two friends, on Christmas Eve came even more emotions. As I sat at work on New Year's Eve I started to write down a list of goals for 2009. As I got close to 30 goals I started to feel overwhelmed. Why do we do this to ourselves? But I am going to keep the list and try to work on them one at a time. And as most people do, I made a goal to become a more happy, healthy person. So starting monday...it's to the gym we go!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Birthday-Shopping-Shopping-More Shopping-Decorating

The title of this post says it all. Mom and grandma came down on Thursday night. Friday was a fun filled day of eating yummy food and of course shopping. We started out at Target and spent a good two and a half hours there. Then we met up with Greg and it was off to lunch at 25 Main (which is never a disappointment and if you have never been there you need to go). We ended lunch by sharing three delicious cupcakes. After lunch, mom and I were off to Tia Pan to buy decorations for our first Christmas tree. After about four hours we made it home just in time to head to dinner at Samurai 21. To finish off the day we came home and decorated the tree.

Our first Christmas tree
I think we did a pretty good job

Closer look at the top

On Saturday we got going early again and shopped all day. We stopped once to eat lunch with Greg and then we were on our way again. We got home late that night and our feet hurt so bad. I think we hit every store in St. George. We had such a good time. My mom and I have not done anything like this for over 4 years. Thanks mom for coming down and spending a fun weekend with me.

Thriller!

This past weekend some of Greg's family came down to go to Thriller with us! It was a short trip, but we had tons of fun! Saturday morning the girls went to the What Women Want Expo while the boys watched football. Then we went to dinner at Pizza Factory (YUM!) Then it was off to Tuachan for Thriller! We got there a little early, but the weather was perfect to just sit outside and chat. Of course the show was GREAT! This is the second year that Greg and I have gone. I told him yesterday that we need to make it a Halloween tradition, because I love it! Of course the show wouldn't be without a good scare! This time they got me good! It was totally unexpected and I fell off my seat right on to Greg's lap. I was laughing so hard that I was crying, and so was everyone else. Good times!! Thanks to Grant, Kathryn, Emily, and Allison for coming down! We had a blast!

The Garner's came to St. George!

Thanks Lara for so kindly naming this post for me!

We have had lots of fun weekends in October-The first weekend my mom came down and stayed with us, the second weekend we went to Salt Lake for Grace's blessing and to Logan to help with the house, and Last weekend Lara and her family came to stay with us and it was the funnest of all three. Oh and this weekend Greg's family will be here for Thriller at Tuachan.

Back to the Garner's coming to visit. We had a blast: Lots of laughing, talking, surfing the internet, making fun of me, trying to talk Greg and Patrick into believing that Lara and I are not twins, staying up late, eating good food, and eating good treats. Not to mention the fun times at the sand dunes, and the "water park" (as Will calls it). I am still finding sand all over the house, but it was worth it.





Did I mention we had a blast, because we did! Now that we have extra bedrooms I expect that the Garner's will be visiting more often, and they know they are always welcome (and so is anyone else that wants to make a trip to sunny St. George!)

P.S. I just have to give a shout out to the most heavenly cupcake from 25 Main. I'm not usually a cupcake fan, but this was AMAZING! Greg and I knew about 25 Main, but never went there, so we finally went when Lara suggested it. I'm pretty sure it will be a regular for us now.

Thanks for a great time guys!!