Birthday Week!

Because we look for any excuse to party it up, I decided that we would make Tanya's birthday a week long celebration. Here are some of the highlights.

Tanya got a LOT of clothes for Costa Rica/Hawaii, as seen in these gift bags (most of them had entire beach outfits in each bag). I accidentally made the mistake of wrapping up her valentine's gift and giving it to her again, which did not go over well. Sorry! We had friends over for cupcakes, diet coke with lime, and lots of cackling on Friday. Tanya's dad Bart also made a funfetti cake on Thursday. She also got an orchid plant to take care of since our fish Tyrone is not challenging enough.

We went on a date to Macaroni Grill on her birthday. It never disappoints. We loved our lemon rustica and ate 3 loaves of bread (and one to go!) They also let us order any dessert off the menu for her birthday, the opera singer sang happy birthday in Italian, and gave her a flower.

Tanya's mom's birthday was 3 days later so her dad took us all to Bonsai for a combined birthday dinner. It's a good one! Every course is amazing and it's so fun to watch them cook your dinner.

Pennie got her special Glaus Bakery mint chocolate cake, which she shared with us. Tanya's aunt Karen also made this bunny cake. What a week!

Turn My Camera On

When we went to California last August for my birthday, we fell asleep on the beach (there's nothing better in this world). It was a rude awakening, however, when the high tide rushed over us and all of our stuff. Our camera was covered in wet sand and the lens got stuck. When we got home I took it apart and cleaned it out, but we still can't zoom and the camera in general is very touchy. With our future plans in place, we figured it was time for an upgrade.

Meet our new camera!

Waterproof up to 33 feet - drop and shock proof - freeze proof
Basically, it's Rod & Tan proof.

We would love to get scuba certified in the near future. In this case Tanya would be the one taking the picture, because I don't see her shaking hands with this little guy.

We hope to see it all! (maybe not the sharks)

We can have underwater photo shoots, circa last season of America's Next Top Model

And learn new underwater hobbies

Can't wait to test it out next week at the pool in St. George!

Lazy Sunday

How to have a lazy weekend - and a classy one at that!

4 parts diet coke with lime

One fold out bed

19 games of Sequence intermingled with 5 games of Settlers of Catan

One washcloth bow tie to add class and sophistication

3 steaks and 4 hot dogs slow cooked with $15 worth of charcoal

8 teriaki shrimp, 2 turkey sandwiches, and 2 dinner salads in a rustic lodge

4 friends in a hot tub

And 23 makeshift match candles

Made for one great weekend!

Hey Shorty, It's Your Birthday!

Happy Birthday Tannie!

Now let's get KRUNK!

Suicide Blonde

That may be the title of a Jack's Mannequin song, but it still applies to this post about Vampire Weekend. Just sayin'!

I've always been supporter of Vampire Weekend, but when Ashley told me she needed a date to their concert I listened to them non stop for two weeks. Contra is now an obsession. I love this music video.

Ash and I at the concert - if you think my hair is blonde in this pic you're right. I'll explain later.

They are quite adorable too.

Remember how I was trying to figure out what to do with my hair? I decided to try it blonde. Being the over ambitions people that we are, my mom and I decided to color the WHOLE thing. I usually do okay with drastic changes, but 3 days after I went blonde I decided that I hated it. I am happy to say that I am now back to my BRUNETTE self. I feel much better. Also, now I can say "hey remember that time I was blonde for the weekend?" that will be funny.

It's Happening . . .

Those of you that know us well know that we love Hawaii. Something about the summer we spent there changed both of our lives forever. We both learned a lot about who we were and what kind of life we wanted to live. Besides the fact that the weather is great year round, it's pretty, and there is a lot to do, we love the chill attitude and how happy people there are. Ever since before we started dating we joked about moving back, opening a bed and breakfast, and becoming crusty old leather faces. When we started dating we continued to talk about it as if it were really happening. And ever since we got married, it has been "when we live in Hawaii . . . "

Well folks, it's happening! We are moving to Hawaii on July 21st. We already bought our one way tickets, put a deposit on housing, and are set to ship Tanya's car over.

This will be the view from our house
And this hot tub is in our yard.

This is something that we have to do. Who knows how long we'll be there, but we feel so good about it and are excited that we are making our dream come true! Although we will miss our friends and family, we are hoping that we can visit Utah enough and have people come and visit us too. We know we will grow closer as a couple and this is something that will be so good for us. If not now, then when?

Aloha!

Rod and Tan

Opinions, Please

Well friends, I need your help. My whole life I have constantly switched from blonde to brunette with the seasons. It just feels right to be blonde in the summer. I have been brunette for almost a year and a half now and I'm getting tired of it. I want your honest opinion: blonde or brunette? I like it both ways and I change my mind just about every day, so tell me, what would you do if you were me?

Can't Sleep

I can't sleep right now. All day long I was studying for a midterm (although they shouldn't be allowed to call it that when there are 4 of them throughout the semester - all equally time consuming and horrific). Today our Sunday tradish of playing Super Mario Brothers for Wii and Sequence (our new favorite board game) were tainted by the little voice in the back of my head telling me I should be studying Latin American history instead. boo. I can't wait until April 23rd when I can wipe my brain clean and start over, forgetting everything I learned in college. Everyone keeps telling me that it only gets more stressful and less fun after graduating. Really? I refuse to believe it.

Things besides that are great for us. Tanya is enjoying her post-grad free time and just finished reading
So now we can watch the movie (loves us some Rachel McAdams)
Her birthday is also coming up, so we have something to look forward to in March (besides the obviously much improved weather)

I really love my jobs right now and I like being able to work from home. I'm learning a lot every day. Last week we got to go to a concert in Provo at The Velour (such a cool venue) to see Lindsay Aline, who I promote online, perform with some other artists.
She is good live and rocked on the piano. The picture on the right is the poster I made, we saw it hanging up when we were walking to the concert and I got excited for some dumb reason - I'm no graphic artist, I wish I were and I respect people that can do that. I hope to learn someday.
We also got really excited to be able to drink Coke and Purple Drank (grape soda) from bottles
There was also a girl named MaryDawn who did this thing where she made her voice sound like a muted trumpet, it was really cool! She had a good voice too, very old-fashioned. Here's a video I took



And last night we planned out our 15 day trip to Costa Rica with Curtis & Ashley, and we're so happy that it's now going to involve

Grandpa Tapp

A couple of weekends ago my grandpa Tapp passed away unexpectedly on he and my grandma's 50th wedding anniversary. Last Thursday was the funeral. Rod and I have had our fair share of funerals in the last little while, but it was good to be together with my Dad's family who came up from St. George.

He was really into cars and he always had a fresh paint job on whatever car he drove, so they decided to give his casket a little "ice cream paint job" - and cover it with stickers from the movie "cars"

Here is a picture of me with him and my grandma when I was little - obviously during Easter

And here is a picture of him that we found while making his slideshow - I thought it was a pretty cool vintage shot with his bottle collection and that damask wallpaper in the background.
You will be missed Grandpa!