Fancy Night 2012

Who doesn't want to get dressed up all fancy and have a fancy dinner with fancy friends?  I do!  This is our second fancy night, and it was splendid! Our guests consisted of James and Carly Zamora, and Randy and Dev Day.  We would have invited more but unfortunately my table only holds six. We started off the evening with a fancy photo shoot that I am sure I made a fool of myself trying to run back and forth setting the timer so that we could take some group shots.
Then we went back to our house for dinner and games.  We had two delicious salads, rolls, garlic bread, gorgonzola crusted steaks, and pazookies for dessert.
We finished  the evening with a ridiculous game called "Curses" which I'm pretty sure made everyone feel like idiots. Overall a phenomenal evening.

Family Pictures 2011

 I just love Still Life Studios. They never cease to amaze me how they can make us look better than we actually are (except for Calvin... he really is that cute).  Here are some of our family pictures from 2011

Color Run 2012

One of my New Years resolutions is at the end of 2012 I will run a half marathon (here's to hoping).  I'm not a runner.  I ran track in high school and got injured my sophomore year. So besides the few races I did compete in this is the first race I've ever done.  Well, if you even want to call this a race, it wasn't timed and there were a lot of congestion points where pretty much everyone stopped. But, it was 5k and I'm proud of myself!

Before

At different times during the run we would go through a tunnel of colored cornstarch. I would forget to close my eyes, mouth, and nose and it would be very unpleasant, but they said it wouldn't do any harm, so what if I'm still blowing purple boogers out of my nose, that's okay... right?
The paint was really easy to get off, if you didn't sweat, or didn't try to wipe it off with a wet wipe first and end up staining it on your face/ body. Who does that anyways?  I'm sure there was instructions somewhere that I didn't read.  Instead I just looked like I was in an abusive relationship.  Bruised from head to ankle. The blues and purples with the yellows and greens make the perfect combination for bruised looking skin.

After

I really did have a lot of fun and I am looking forward to the many races that I will run this year.

Grandma Tropple

 It's always sad when one of the good, normal people leave this world.  On Friday my sweet grandma passed away.  I love her and miss her so much.  She was such a unique person.  She lived a life of service.  She wasn't one to complain or to ever put herself first.  My childhood memories of grandma were of her serving my grandpas every need. "Beatrice where's my dinner?!" I would hear him call out.  And grandma would call back "Just a minute Art!" and bring him his food or whatever else he was calling out for. When my grandpa passed away six years ago my grandma was devastated.  I know she has been missing her sweetheart for a long time now and I'm grateful that she gets to be with him.  Her family made her happy.
My grandma was hilarious she always had a witty remark and knew how to make you laugh even on the saddest of days. Jesse and I would take her grocery shopping. In the summer time when it got really hot she would get out of the car and comment "If hell is this hot, I'm going to change my ways!"
She loved "fat furries" Anything that looked fun to cuddle with. There was a tragedy in my ward where this lady got attacked and killed by a bear.  When I told my grandma about the attack and tried to convince her that bears probably wouldn't be very fun to cuddle with, she just sighed and said "What a way to go..." like being attacked by a bear would be the PERFECT way to die.  Fat furries made her happy.
My grandma LOVED food, she had boxes of recipes she had clipped out of magazines, but she hated to cook.  So she would just look and imagine eating the picture perfect food.  Her favorite was chocolate. When we would take her shopping I think most of the groceries she purchased were candy.  I was amazed that she had eaten all the chocolate since the last time we took her shopping. Chocolate made her happy.
She adored her husband and child. She was a momma bear for sure. I never saw my grandma upset unless you were talking bad about someone she cared for (which was pretty much everyone).  She loved her family and friends.
I heard the news when I was driving home from the grocery store and a silly country love song came on "Wrapped up in You" by Garth Brooks and I was so happy! I could just imagine my grandma giving my grandpa a huge hug, and my grandpa saying some snide comment like "Well, what took you so long!?" In his big, raspy grandpa voice. There was never any doubt that my grandma loved her family. I will miss her, but I know I'll see her again.