Oregon 4th of July

We spent our Fourth of July weekend with Landon's mom (Danna), sister (Lindsie), and Danna's boyfriend (Chris), and his family (Jennifer, Jessica, Josslyn, and Vickie). I am so glad that we were able to make time for this trip, because it was one of the funnest vacation spots I have EVER been to. We stayed in a beautiful beach house right on the beach in Netarts, Oregon. Danna's ex-in-laws live here and so that is how she knew of this beautiful gem of a place.

Here is a picture of our (for lack of a better word) beach Sunday night.

There is so much to do in this part of the country. Oregon is the best of every world. There is the ocean which brings deep-sea fishing, crabbing, clamming, boating, surfing, swimming (if you are brave), running on the beach, sea animals and so much more. And then there is the mountains to hike and camp in, freshwater lakes, sand dunes, green thick forests, beautiful farmland with beautiful cows for yummy cheese and so much more. And then there is the city life in Portland about an hour and a half away! And we all know that I have to have my city life close by. To say the least, Landon and I absolutely loved it!

Here are the clams Chris, Josslyn, Jessica, Landon and I dug for.

This is Lindsie, Danna, me and Landon out to lunch in the Pearl District, Portland.

Our deep sea fishing adventure. Landon caught around 10 fish and I caught 7 or 8.

Jessica caught 16!!! Our group of 9 caught 63 fish total!

Not to mention, Tillamook Oregon is only about 10 miles east of Netarts.

Landon was in heaven. Not only is there cheese, but ice cream!

Kiwanda, Oregon is a little surfing town. We ate lunch at The Pelican Pub and Brewery.

Landon and I have a very similar picture of the two of us on the Fourth of July 2009 in Island Park, Idaho. That is the trip Landon told me he loved me for the first time :)

He told me he loved me on this trip, too ;)

Here is our backyard at "our" beach house.

Well, all I can say after all that is if you randomly hear that the Andertons packed up all our stuff and moved to Netarts, Oregon to start a B&B on the coast, you probably heard right. Thanks, Danna for planning and bringing us on this AMAZING trip! We only wished that we could have stayed for the whole week!

New baby Julianne

Here is my new niece, Julianne Ruth Russell (Melissa's second). I got the chance to spend the rest of spring break with them while Landon came home and worked. Lucky me. Pretty much all weekend, I got to hold Julianne and dress her and yes I even changed diapers. It was nice to spend time with Melissa, Travis and Isaac. Isaac is a hoot! He says and does the funniest things. When he wants to hold Julianne, he says, "Here, here" and holds his hands out. He came up with a nickname for Julianne all by himself, JuJu. And my two favorite phrases he said over the weekend were "Yee-haw baby" and "All aboard! Tickets Please!". He is so funny! Melissa got me on to this new website www.melskitchencafe.com and she made some good dinners while I was there. We also went to H&M, which is the biggest H&M in the world. Super cool.



Those binkies are funny! And it looks so big in her little mouth!


Landon was so cute with Julianne, he wanted to hold her as much as he could for the afternoon he was with me at Melissa's house.




I made this little headband and the flowers on the shirt out of a t-shirt of mine that I had been saving because I loved the color and the design on it. It turned out to be the cutest little thing! The onesie is a 9 month size, so I can't wait to see her in it in 8 months!



Here is funny little Isaac watching "Emperor's New Groove". Every time he watches anything Disney, he needs to put on his Mickey Mouse ears... How funny!

Family is great and I felt lucky to get to spend time with Melissa and her own family over spring break.

Anniversary Extravaganza

Welcome to our fantastic, yet unpredictable, spring break anniversary extravaganza! We went to Zion's National Park for the beginning of the extravaganza and spent the first part of the trip going back and forth between Zion's and Cedar City because one of us (I won't mention who) forgot their purse at Costa Vida in Cedar City and did not realize it until we had made it to Zion's an hour later. So what should have taken 32 miles and an hour's worth of driving through canyons and small towns took 132 miles and three to four hour's worth of time. I know, I know. Thankfully no one stole my purse or else this trip would have really turned into a tragedy. So after a good night's rest and relaxation, we started the new day with a more positive attitude and was just thankful we had made it to our destination.

Zion's is so pretty and for those of my few readers who have yet to go, really should make an effort. Especially the readers that live in the same state as Zion's.

Here we are at the top of a hike that overlooks a beautiful part of the park.

I accidentally knocked over this rock...

These people were CRAZY! It was spring weather (50 degrees Fahrenheit) and they were hiking the river that went through a small and very dangerous part of the canyon! The whole time I saw them I just couldn't help myself from telling fellow hikers how idiotic those two were. It was cold! Not to mention the temperature of that water and the fact that a flash flood could happen at any minute during this time of the year (I did my reading up on hikes before we went).

So after a great first day in Zion's we woke up to THIS the next morning. That quickly changed our minds about the hike we had planned for the day. So in a matter of hours, we went from this...

To this!

And from this...

To this!!! We were upgraded to an executive suite which means that we had a huge tub and separate shower. Our own sitting room and a half bath at the entrance of our sweet suite. It was fun to pamper ourselves after unpredictable adventures in Zion's.

Here we are waiting for Landon's favorite part of the trip. The Blue Man Group. I do have to say that this was the highlight of the trip for me too. Unless we talk about our trip to ZARA! Love that store!

This performance knocked out socks off!!! Thanks Blue Man :)

Overall, the whole trip knocked our socks off. We decided next time we look forward to pleasant and maybe even warm weather for our anniversary, we will make sure that our destination is closer to the equator. That way we will ensure warm and sunny weather.

Tricks, Skis, and a Perfect Ending

Last night, Landon told me that he wanted to leave our house to go skiing by 8 am in order to get to the 12" plus fresh powder that had fallen over night. Me, being the nice wife that I am agreed to this. I was kinda excited to get the fresh powder too, but sleep is something that I take very very very seriously so it was still a big compromise.

And here is where the tricks began...

Landon, the sly guy that he is, decided to trick me into getting up at 6:30 am instead of 7:30 am. How did he do it? Well, he set the alarm for what I thought was 7:30. When the alarm went off this morning, he got up and went into our guest bedroom, took my phone and his with him. When I got up, I found him waiting in there. He suggested that I take a shower first because I take longer. Me, being the gullible girl that I am, got in the shower without a second thought. Well, I get down into the kitchen and I read the clock: IT WAS 6:50!!!! Oh, was I pissed :) Kinda. It was kinda cute how sly he was and I was out of my norm on this one too. Usually, I would've raced upstairs and yanked Landon out of the shower by his ear just to let him know how grumpy I was about this little trick he had played on me. I guess you could say that it was Landon's lucky lucky day.

Landon's efforts were rewarded when we got up there just in time to wait in the gondola line for 20 minutes. The line was extra long today, but it wasn't people we were waiting

for, we were waiting for the dang gondola to open! But, had we gotten there any later, we would've have had to wait for a long line of people. So, once again Landon's tricks were paying off.

Here we are waiting in the gondola line:

Skis:

This year, I am trying out demos of all different kinds of skis with plans of buying my favorite model once the season is done. I have wanted to buy skis for a while, but never have had the guts to make the $1000-2500 investment and did not want to make such an investment without a broad knowledge base of different kinds of skis. Also, once the season is over, 2011 models will be cheaper :) With the 12 plus inches of new powder, I tried fat

skis.

These were them:

I liked them a lot in the powder, although they were tough

to carve on over the groomed and pack trails as the day progressed. The most interesting part of these skis is when I fell into waist-high powder and lost one! This was not the kind of circumstances that I wanted to pay for a pair of skis (because I lost one).

Thankfully, after waiting for Landon to take two lifts and hike 1/2 mile over to where we were skiing, he found it in under 5 minutes. Prayers do really work! Here is where we hiked over to and skied at:

This was some of the best and most adventurous skiing that I have ever done and if I had to loose a ski in the midst of it all, it was well worth it.

Landon had me take some pictures of him going down some fresh powder and here are the shots I was able to get:

In this picture, Landon is the second highest person hiking up the ridge.

Here is me on the top of the 1/2 mile hike. From here you could see Brighton (another ski resort in a different canyon) and part of the Wasatch Front. I was on top of the world!

After 6 straight hours of skiing, I was pooped (to say the least) and thankfully, Landon was too.

We made it back home and decided that fixing dinner tonight would be too much of a task after all that had been done today. So the perfect ending to a very early, perfect powder day was eating at Sawadee, a Thai place that has been a longtime favorite of ours.

LF Christmas Party

This is long over due especially with the last post being so dramatic and all, but I was in the mood to post. So here is what the Lunatic Fringe party looked like this year...

We all partied at Sapa sushi bar and grill and I had to post a picture of how cool this place is. The atmosphere is really great and so is the food.

Here is most of who I work with at Parley's. I don't think that I could work at any other location. These people are my family. They have seen me through thick and thin. Pre and post Germany and everything in between.

Zach and I were the only brave ones to go up and get seconds at our table. Not only that, but others were so not going back up there that they made us get them more. So not only were we back for seconds, but we looked like pigs doing it. Having enough food for four between the two of us.

This is not me, but I wish it was me because of her awesome sequin dress that she had on. It was my favorite dress of the night and it might be my favorite dress of 2010. It had shoulder pads and everything!! I know, you are thinking "shoulder pads? is Jen crazy?" No, I am not. If you had seen this dress, you would understand.

This is my best friend/twin. I love this girl. Thanks for always being there for me, Casie :)

And last but not least, here is the best part of the party. Here is Chelsea and Spencer. It might be confusing as to what name goes to who, but these two always seem to stick out and are completely unpredictable. In real life, Spencer does wear scarves, and leopard stockings, and moccasins, but never all at the same time. And never have I seen him in a dress, but I think he did that to counter-part his love, Chelsea. These two are some of the most generous and nicest friends I have.

Overall, the LF party turned out to be a success. Can't wait for next year!

Lunatic Christmas Parties

Every year Lunatic Fringe has a Christmas party, where all of us Lunatics get dressed up and have crazy fun eating and dancing the night away. Something that all of us Fringe Family knows is that this annual event is secretly a competition between salons to get dressed up in the best way possible to beat other salons in overall "hottness" (I guess)... We got glitz and glam Sugarhouse, sophisticated and classic Eleventh, posh Park City, and melting hot Parley's. For the 2010 party, we will be getting our grooves on at Sapa sushi, bar, and grill. What will the peep's pull out of their hats this year? Most likely glamorous cocktail dresses, adorning jewelry, and sexy platform heels all too expensive for our wallets, but definitely not for our tastes. Here is a look back on last year's party...

Parley's aLL thE WAY!

Our significant others joined in on the fun later on.

Doin' what she knows best- eating!!!

Dancin' the night away...

We got Johnny Kats up in the house!!

Here are us triplets: Casie, Zach and me.

I kinda sucked it up as far as glamorous goes last year, as you all can clearly tell. This year will be ever tougher with my "angel chaps"... We'll see what goes down :) 2010 pictures to come!

Football and Family

I wish that someone would've told us that the Utah football team wasn't planning on showing up for the TCU game last Saturday... Oh well, it was fun to hang out with my cousin, Ryan and the rest of the Sampson family during the game.

Ryan took a great shot of Landon and I... Thanks Ryan!

An update on what we have been up to the last few months:

- Landon is bustin' his butt in order to get done with his Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering at the U of U in May.

-Jen is not so pumped about school this semester with Anatomy, although I can now begin the application process at UVU for the dental hygiene program. This year they are only accepting 14 students where as last year they accepted 30!!!

-Landon is working at L-3 Communications and likes his job (most days).

-Jen still works at Lunatic Fringe...

-We have had lots of fun this season meeting new friends and enjoying good times with old ones.

-We got to go to Montana over fall break and had fun with my family out on the ranch.

-We are excited for this winter with Landon's season pass to the Canyon's and my free passes, it will be a fun one!