Our Vacation - Pre Christmas

We did so much and took so many pictures over our vacation that I can't fit it all into one post!  Here's what we did in AZ before Christmas:

1.  The triathlon - We left for AZ on a Friday afternoon, and on Saturday morning, I did a triathlon with  my mom and Courtney!  We were a relay team, so we each did one leg.  Courtney was amazing at the swimming part, and my mom did really good at the biking, and I was able to run the whole way without stopping, which was my goal.  Also, I had the lofty goal of running faster than 30 minutes (it was a 5k), but I knew that would be tough because I'm so slow right now.  And then the second half of the course was uphill!  However, I was surprised to see that my time was around 30:30, which was faster than I felt like I was running!

2.  The trampoline - Can you tell what Violet's favorite thing to do at LeSueur Grandma and Grandpa's house was?

She wanted to jump all day long!  I actually loved it, because most of the time she just wanted us to come on the tramp with her, but hold perfectly still while she jumped.  I would just bring out a blanket and relax for half an hour while she tired her self out!

3.  Our anniversary - Five years together!  We went on a date and saw the movie Frozen (which we loved) and then to dinner at a new place in Mesa called Republica Empanada (which we loved even more!) 

4.  The park with cousins - One morning, we went over to Freestone Park for Violet to feed the ducks, and her Redd cousins met us there.  This ended up being one of my favorite days of our trip; the kids had so much fun playing together, and Glenn and I always love a chance to hang out with Cheeri and Dustin.

New Years' Resolutions - 2014!

I'm excited to post all the pictures from Christmas and NewYears', but I want to make sure I post about my resolutions before I forget!  I liked how last year I felt so accountable for my resolutions since I'd posted them here and you all knew about them!

In review, for 2013 I had two resolutions:  Write in my journal everyday, and read 50 books.  I did write in my journal almost everyday.  I think I probably missed about 5 days throughout the year, and those were all in the first part of the year.  I haven't missed a day in months.  So I think I can say that I have successfully developed that habit!  

My other resolution was also very close to being a success.  I read... 48 books.  I pretty much stayed on track all year.  The problem was, when it came to crunch time at the end of the year, we were here with our family and I never felt like shutting myself up in my room during nap time to read!  If you are interested, here are the 48 books I read:

Looking back over all of them, some of my favorites were anything by Jhumpa Lahiri and the new Lemony Snicket series.  My least favorites were probably Austenland and Night Circus.  If you have any recommendations for me, I love to hear them!  I'm always looking for books to read.  Also, I got the new Jhumpa Lahiri for Christmas and I'm so excited to start it!

Here are my new resolutions:

1.  Read my scriptures everyday (so far I'm 3 for 3!)

2.  Go to Goodwill once a month to donate stuff.

That last one is because I want to have a little stuff as possible to move in a year and half when Glenn is done with school, and I figured it would be good to start de-junking now.  

5 Years - A timeline

Today is mine and Glenn's fifth anniversary!  To celebrate, I figured I'd recap the last five years - briefly :).  But with lots of pictures.  Here is what's been going on:

YEAR 1 - 2009 (We got married in 2008, but obviously at the very end of the year, so I'll start with 2009)

This was the year we got married and went to ASU together for the spring and fall semesters.  We have such good memories of those semesters being in school together.

(engagement pic)

(in Belize for our honeymoon)

YEAR 2 - 2010

This was the year we graduated together from ASU.  My last semester was student teaching, and it was a very stressful experience, and I was SO blessed to have Glenn along for the ride with me.  Also, that fall, I started teaching for real.  And also I got pregnant.  And Glenn get accepted to USC for dental school!  It was an eventful year.

(My first day of teaching!)

YEAR 3 - 2011

I finished my first year of teaching, and a few weeks later we had Violet.  And a few weeks later we moved to California for dental school!

(Glenn's first day of dental school!)

YEAR 4 - 2012

Lived in Cali and loved it!  

YEAR 5 - 2013

And continued to live in Cali and love it!  I guess there isn't much to say about the last couple of years beyond that.  Uh, I guess this is the year we realized we somehow ended up with the sassiest daughter ever, but also the smartest/prettiest/happiest one too.  Also I'm pregnant again, so that is a big deal.

Anyway, Happy Anniversary Glenn!  It's been the best five years I could have asked for!

"I'm a Reindeer"

I am behind on blogging, but here is a quick video to get you in the Christmas spirit!

Old Man Glenn Turns 28

Glenn's birthday was a couple of weeks ago!  His parents came to visit for the weekend; they've actually come to visit for every one of his birthdays since we moved here!  It is a nice tradition that has developed.  We had a great time, and Violet was especially happy to have her grandparents around.

They got here Friday night, and we spent the whole day on Saturday doing fun things.  We went to Griffith Park in the morning.  Violet rode the ponies again.  This time she kept her dad close and her eye on the man with the blue jacket, and reluctantly allowed him to put her in the saddle.  After that she had a great time!

Violet also got to ride the carousel, and afterwards, we had a picnic and played croquet in the lawn near the carousel.  This carousel is super old, and the fastest one I've ever seen!  Violet was a little shaken after getting off!

Saturday evening, Glenn and I went on a date!  We went to eat at La Barca, a Mexican restaurant very close by that we'd heard good things about.  It was delicious!  The best part was taking as long as we wanted.  We usually rush through dinner if we go to a restaurant with Violet.  Even if she is being really good, it's like we are scared she is eventually going to get bored, so we hurry through everything.  Since it was just us, we waited a little extra long to get a booth instead of a table, and then the waiter had to come back twice before we ordered because we were really taking our time deciding.

On Sunday, Glenn's birthday, we all had breakfast together.  Glenn didn't have any meetings before church, which was a nice birthday present!  Violet helped Glenn open his presents, of course.  I think she was as excited about some of the presents as he was!

Here's where I made my big mistake:  I didn't make the cake until Glenn's parents had gone.  They left to drive home right after church, and I made the birthday cake in the afternoon.  Well, Glenn ate one piece, and I was too full, so we were left with a giant cake in the fridge and no one to eat it!  We took it to our institute class a couple of days later and it was gone in about 5 seconds, so it all worked out.

Big Girl Bed

My parents had a bed they were willing to give us for Violet when she was ready to move out of her crib, so when Glenn's parents came into town last weekend (for his birthday!  A post on that coming soon...) they picked up the bed from my parents and drove it up!

Violet was SO excited about it.  She loves to play with it:  jump on it, read on it, hide under it, etc.  However, if you ask her if she wants to sleep in it, she answers, "Um...maybe when I'm bigger."  Which, incidentally, is also her answer if you ask her if she wants to use the toilet.  We aren't pushing too hard for her to make the switch because it might actually be nice to have a free bed for my mom to sleep in when she comes when the new baby is born.

 And now I will overrepresent this small step in Violet's life with too many pictures because I love them all so much:

Field Hockey in Santa Barbara

Glenn started practicing with the field hockey team at USC last week.  He was surprised when after just two practices, they asked him to come play in their game on Saturday!  They asked on Thursday, and the game was in Santa Barbara, so we made the last minute decision to head up there this weekend.

I'm glad we went, because it was a good thing for Glenn to get involved with the team, but I would rate the three main components of the trip as such:  the drive: terrible, the hockey: slightly disappointing, lunch: amazing. 

The drive up there was actually lovely.  We made it in less than an hour and a half, and it is a really pretty drive.  The problem was the drive home.  Ugh, we were in traffic for so long.  It was one of those drives that just makes you very single-minded to how much you hate LA.  (and I actually love LA, but the traffic is really something.)  I think it took us over two and half hours to get home.

It was fun to meet Glenn's team, and they were happy to have Glenn there.  But...turned out they didn't have an extra jersey for Glenn in the right color, so he had to be the goalie the whole time.

It was pretty warm, and I was glad I had my umbrella for shade.  Violet made her own shade.

Then for the best part of the trip:  Lunch!  We tried the place- El Super Rica Taqueria- the first time we went to Santa Barbara a couple of years ago, and loved it.  We hadn't been back since, and knew that is where we should eat this time.  We remembered that the best thing we had there was the chile relleno, so that is what we got.  I took a picture:

Violet chowed down on freshly made corn tortillas that had so much natural sweetness from the corn that they made your hands sticky.  Mmmmmm.

There was also sword fighting:

It was a good enough lunch to make the trip to Santa Barbara worth it!