RFR

My love turns 27 tomorrow! I wanted to do a post dedicated to him and all of his awesomeness. Anyone who knows him knows how fun, sweet, caring, hilarious, and outrageous Rodney is. I am a very lucky woman to be married to such an amazing man. I love you boo! Happy Birthday!

Death Cab

One thing I really missed while we were in Hawaii was going to concerts. Lately we have been making up for lost time. When I found out Death Cab was coming to Salt Lake I begged Rod to get us tickets, but I guess something about going to Thailand, moving home from Hawaii, and not having jobs made him a little hesitant. By the time we were settled and had some income coming in all of the GA seats were sold out. Yesterday I was feeling really sad that we were going to miss the show. Sometime in the afternoon Curtis called me and said that they had TWO extra tickets for cheap AND they were in a VIP box! We were treated like kings! We had great seats, free food, and drinks. PLUS we didn't have to stand for three hours in a sweaty crowd of people. It was amazing. Thanks again C&A! We had so much fun!

Even though we ate dinner before the concert the guys did not want to pass up free food. Rod was in heaven . . . buffalo wings, sliders, and mozzarella sticks.

They played a lot of older stuff and some of my favorites off of their new album. "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" made me cry, it was incredible. 

I think we are spoiled now . . . I'm not sure I can ever do GA again! 

First Day of My Life

A few days ago Rod and I went to the Twilight Concert Series to watch Bright Eyes with C&A. Even though this band is not necessarily my favorite, one of their most famous songs has a lot of meaning to me. "First Day of My Life" was a song that Rod put on one of our Hawaii mixes back when we first met. I think I listened to this song 100 times that summer and it will now and forever remind me of Hawaii and falling for Rodney. It was really fun to hear this song live and to spend the evening outside with my love. Hooray for free summer concerts!

Party Rock

 Our cousin Jenna just finished this year's Rasmussen Lake Powell video . . . I think she's outdone herself.

PhatRas 2011 Party Rock from Rodney Rasmussen on Vimeo.

Uintas

This weekend we took Ellie on her first camping trip! Curtis and Ash came with us to the Uintas and we had a great time.

It took us a long time to find a campsite, but once we did we had an amazing meal. Tin foil dinners and dutch oven peach cobbler at 11:30 at night! Being full, cold, and sitting around the fire we may have gotten a little slap happy. Add some diet coke and cinnamon bears . . . perfection.

 

One of our favorite things about our Element is that you can fold the seats all the way down and sleep in it! We tried it this weekend I was really surprised how comfortable it was. Reason number 105 that we love our new car. 

The next morning we hiked Bald Mountain. It was freezing but really beautiful. We saw snow for the first time since December!

Sneak Peak

I think I just peed a little.

Dog Days of Summer

Here is what we've been up to lately:

Last weekend we went to St. George with Tan's family, and my parents were nice enough to let us stay at their condo.  We originally planned this trip with the idea that we would go to Tuacahn, since neither of us have been before.  As the trip got closer, we started getting nervous about buying tickets because we are broke.  On the way down, I got a call and was offered a job I applied for (more on that later).  We could breathe a little easier knowing some money was on the way (even though Tuacahn was sold out).  We swam, went on a shopping spree for work clothes for the both of us, ate out, went to Captain America and Cowboys and Aliens, and played lots of games and Wii.  It was a nice last hurrah before we get tied down to our jobs!

Here are some pool pics

 

Tanya's brother Court turned 17 on Monday.  He's growing up so fast!  We love spending time with him, he's sassy and cynical like us, and loves to party.  

 

Our niece and nephew (hereafter known as "the nuggets") are still in town and we love it!  They are darls X 2.

 

My job!  I have been applying and interviewing for jobs like crazy since before we even moved home.  I always thought my interviews went well, but I was also competing against 10-20 + people for every job I interviewed for.  To add to that, I was not happy with the salary that many jobs were offering (welcome to Utah) and I let everyone know up front what salary I was expecting.

I was starting to get nervous as August was approaching, and I still didn't have any offers.  Finally one job came along that I was excited about.  They gave me a writing assignment to perform before my interview, and they loved my work.  I interviewed, and it felt right.  The only problem = the company is in Lindon (almost to Orem).  Ugg.  I hated commuting to my job in Hawaii.  During the interview, they told me that they are moving to a brand new building in December at Thanksgiving Pointe.  Problem solved!  They called me on my way to St. George and offered me the job, at the salary I wanted!

The company is

 

I am working in the marketing department doing social media and online marketing as well as copy writing.  Today was my first day and so far so good.  This is a cool company and I already love my job.  They gave me a new giant Mac with Adobe Creative Suite to use, I get to help re-brand the company and all the products, and the people seem cool.  I think it was worth the wait.  

 

Tanya also started training this week for her job.  She's learning a lot, getting to know the people she'll be working with, and is excited to start teaching.  School starts August 29th for her and she's teaching Health and P.E., grades 7-10.  Unlike the other teachers, she gets to wear comfy gym clothes to work every day!

With both of us starting our jobs this week, we knew we needed a 2nd car.  Car shopping SUCKS!  We didn't have any idea what we would end up with.  Tanya loves Kia Souls, but we have both always wanted a Honda Element.  They are so cool inside and out.  They are fun to drive and, well, it's a Honda.  After lots of talking each other into it and pumping ourselves up, we bought our dream car!  We are in love and she is our baby.  Tan named her Ellie the Element.  (FYI we named our other car, it's Oscar the Optima)  

 

We have been feeling weird this Summer because we created an amazing life for ourselves in Hawaii, and feel like we were ripped away from it too soon.  Now that things are starting to come together, we feel a little more like ourselves.