Three Years

We celebrated our third wedding anniversary this week!  Ian had an extra two days off of work which meant we got to spend three days together!  With work, travel, school, and other responsibilities

this was a welcomed treat.  With so many fun things to do in Los Angeles, we decided to have a staycation and explore the city.  Here are some highlights from the week....

Monday we went to the beach with the Finlay family.  Ian had a great time with Steve and Evan playing in the waves.

The Getty Museum.  Very impressive art collection.  I especially enjoyed the garden and an exhibit on the building and expansion of Los Angeles.  The views of the city from the museum are always great too. 

The Hollywood Walk of Fame.  I couldn't stand more than about 10 minutes there because it was so dirty, but we did get a picture in front of the famous Chinese theatre and found a few famous stars' names.

Lunch at Umami burger.  Two big thumbs up for this restaurant.  Their truffle fries were delish.       

The Griffith Observatory.  We watched a show in the planetarium and toured the museum.  

We took a hike in the hills nearby.  More great views from the top of Mt. Hollywood.

From the Griffith Observatory there is a great view of the Hollywood sign.  We ate our picnic dinner out on the lawn and watched the sun set.  The Hollywood sign is the small white blob in the backgound. 

 

Once dark, we got to see Saturn through their telescope.  

 

On our actual anniversary we went to the Newport Beach Temple.  The grounds were so beautiful. 

Ian surprised me and we got pedicures.  I had to document that Ian got one as well.  

We finished off the night with a nice dinner at Roy's.  They even had gluten free dessert that was heavenly!  

Happy third anniversary!

Fire and Rain (Lots of it!)

Five months ago Ian surprised me with concert tickets to hear James Taylor live in concert at Red Rocks.  This has seriously been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember and Ian is always surprising me with things that I love.  What a great man.  I grew up singing James Taylor songs and they are somewhat sentimental for me.  Well, last night was the night we had waited for for months.  Red Rocks Amphitheatre is an incredible venue where you sit on the red rock with a view of the city.  Amazing view.  Being with my favorite person, in one of my favorite places, listening to some of my favorite music was heavenly.     

About halfway through, it started raining pretty hard.  We just put our rain jackets on and toughed it out until they stopped the concert because of a severe weather alert.  Just as they were advising everyone to seek shelter and safety in their cars, the power went out.  We decided being in the open, on a large rock, amidst a lot of metal probably wasn't a great place to be with all the lightning going on around us.  So, sadly we left the concert early with a large majority of the crowd.  What a night!  We finished the night out singing to James Taylor all the way home and eventually made it home safely.   

I Heart San Francisco

I was able to take a quick trip out to San Francisco yesterday for half a day.  There I said goodbye to my sister Jennie and my three nieces headed back to China.  As luck would have it, Ian was working in San Francisco this week so we got to have date night on a Wednesday night (which never happens!).  While walking along the Embarcadero just as the sun was setting we saw this little guy swimming around.  

 The sunset was gorgeous.  

The view on the other side was this big moon and the harbor.

 I am sorry I didn't get pictures, but we had dinner with Ian's cousins Erin and Jeannie.  They were nice to eat clam chowder and sour dough bread bowls at Boudin with us.  It's always on my to do list to go to Boudin at least once every time I visit San Francisco.  

Skiing in Park City

Ian and I flew to Utah this past weekend for our yearly trip to Park City to ski.  We arrived early Friday morning and met up with Ian's cousin, Erin.  We skied Deer Valley and the conditions were near perfect.

 We stayed at the St. Regis in Park City.  It is pretty much like heaven to stay there.  We enjoyed free hot chocolates and apple ciders every afternoon.  

 Some of our siblings met us up there to tour the Olympic Training Center.  We watched a skeleton competition, ski jumping, and a kids moguls competition.  

 Being here brought back happy memories for Ian of riding down the bobsled track last year.

Castle Rock

Because Ian travels every week for work, we try to play on the weekends.  This weekend we checked off another item on our bucket list of things to do in Colorado.  On Friday we hiked to the top of Castle Rock and had a picnic of KFC at the top.

Castle Rock has a famous rock nicknamed "The Castle Rock."  You take a short hike to the base of the rock and then scramble up some rocks to the top.  I have never hiked as fast as we did to get to the top before our KFC dinner got cold!  This picture shows Ian a happy man because the chicken was still warm.

A nice view from the top with Pikes Peak in the background.

A Thought

I read this quote today by James Barrie, a Scottish poet.  

"God gave us memories, that we might have June roses in the December of our lives."  

It has been so rainy and cold here in Colorado this last week.  This quote reminded me of warmer, sunnier days of the past.  

Especially this one...

Since it was this time last year.

Hoping to create as many fun memories this next year as we did our first year of marriage.

Three New Rides

This past weekend Annie and I traveled to Salt Lake City to help move some inventory from Salt Lake City to Denver. After picking up a 24 foot moving truck (new ride #1), we headed on over to the warehouse to load the truck up with boxes and molds. It was there that I learned how to drive a forklift for the first time (new ride #2). Pallet after pallet of boxes filled our truck.


Soon after, Annie and I enjoyed a lunch at the Porcupine Grill with Aunt Rosie and Uncle Mike (Annie's aunt and uncle). It was great catching up with them and learning about the experiences they have had since being called to serve as a new mission president.

Shortly after our lunch we rushed up to Park City so that Annie could present her Christmas gift to me - A RIDE DOWN THE OLYMPIC BOBSLED TRACK. This is the only location in the world that allows the public to travel down the entire length of the track.


After sitting through a brief orientation and signing my life away, all of the riders and their guests rode to the top of the track. Here we were fitted with helmets and assigned positions on the sled. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience on The Comet (new ride #3)...


The first straightaway and turn felt more like a roller coaster. The scenery was beautiful and I was able to keep my head from hitting the sides of the sled. This all changed though once we hit the second straightaway. There is no way to describe the experience other than AMAZING. Although I was surprised as to how much I was actually able to see, much of the ride is still a blur. On the turns we hit up to 5 Gs. Our speed was clocked at 80.27 MPH. We had a time of 53.68 seconds. To put this in perspective, the Olympians are running this track in about 48 seconds.


After the exhilaration of flying through the curves of the bobsled track in Park City, it was back to the 24 foot moving van. Although the ride in the van proved to be just as bumpy as the bobsled track, it was nice to ride comfortably in the cab of the truck with Annie.

When the World Gives You Lemons...

This post was originally going to be about a wonderful weekend of skiing and relaxing in Park City, but instead turned into a post about the generosity of random people.

As soon as we arrived in Park City, we rented our skis and headed to our hotel to pick up our lift tickets (free skiing at Deer Valley; shoot us a note if you want to know how to score this deal) and change into our ski clothes. To our great dismay, we found that I had grabbed the wrong bag off of the plane and we were in possession of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant's suitcase. Instead of snowpants and gloves, we had shaving cream and the Southwest Flight Attendant Manual. When I called the flight attendant's cell phone, he was extremely forgiving, told me to enjoy my vacation, and mentioned that he wouldn't need his bag until the following day.

Trying to make the best of the situation, we decided to ski in what we were wearing. Both of us had only a pair of jeans, wool socks, a beannie, and a fleece (luckily Annie had a pair of glove liners as well). Before we hit the slopes, one of the hotel staff donated a pair of gloves to my cause and while on the mountain, a ramdom camera man gave me another fleece. Annie ended up with a neck gaiter and a pair of gloves to keep her warm. While we were far from the winning the best-dressed couple at Deer Valley and definitely had the best story for all of the Deer Valley staff, we were warm enough and enjoyed a great day of skiing.

This weekend a number of ski competitions were being held at Park City, including the Skier Cross World Championships. It was an incredible site seeing four skiers race down the course and battle for the glory of being crowned the champion.

After warming up in the hotel we had some friends and family join us for the next skiing event, the freestyle aerials competition. We saw a perfect score on a lay, triple full, full (translation: a full-laid out flip, a flip with three twists, and a flip with one twist) which turned out to be the winning jump. Nick and Jordan Olsen (cousins), Brent and Kristen Ludwig (Annie's sister and her husband), Alana, Eileen Heng (Alana's friend) and Heather Balli (a former roommate of Annie's) enjoyed dinner, the aerials competition and some hot chocolate with us.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend. Yes, we did receive our luggage (back in Denver) and yes, the flight attendant did receive his luggage (in Ontario). I have always been told by my mother that when the world gives you lemons, just make lemonade. Little did I know that it would be some random strangers that provided the much needed sugar to make this weekend as sweet as it was.

No Evidence

Ian and I had such a fun weekend celebrating both of our birthdays and sadly this picture is the only evidence we have of our weekend adventures!

What you are looking at is a picture of the most delectable french fries ever made- french fries made with truffle oil and topped with fresh parmesan cheese and parsley.  My mouth is salivating just looking at them right now!  Yumm!  They come from a new gourmet hamburger restaurant called Larkburger in Colorado.  We ate these (and a very expensive burger) on the way up to Sedalia to camp overnight.  


While camping we got to try out a new game called Appletters and watched the movie, Waking Ned Divine.  I made my first flourless chocolate cake with a raspberry sauce (thanks to Ian's mom for the great recipe) and we took it up with us to celebrate Ian's birthday.  We really enjoyed being in the mountains and camping for one of the last times this season.        


Ian surprised me this morning on my birthday and stayed home from work (which means he delayed his flight to California a day) so we could spend the day together!  To start the day off, we got to play tennis with my mom and dad.  Tonight we had a picnic dinner with food from my favorite restaurant at a nearby park.  What a great weekend!    
    

Dragon Boat Racing

This weekend we added a new experience to our bucket list.  Ian and I participated in dragon boat racing!  Every year there is a dragon boat racing festival at Sloan Lake in Denver, CO.  We joined up with the Ernst and Young team to race across the pond in dragon boats.  As you can see from the pictures, this was the real deal with a drummer and official dragon boats.  Here is the team practicing paddling in sync with the drum beat.

The dragon boat race.