Housewarming

This summer we've spent a lot of time and effort (and money) putting in our yard. It was hard work, but we are really happy with how it turned out; looking back, it was well worth it. The best part is that we get to enjoy it for the rest of the summer!

Last weekend we had a big housewarming BBQ to celebrate our house and yard being done. Even though we still have a few empty rooms, things have really come together. It was nice to see friends and family, some of whom we hadn't seen in a long time. 

Unfortunately, the night of our party was the night when the horrible fire was happening by Utah Lake. We got a lot of smoke blowing through our party, but we made the most of it. 

The next day we went to Lagoon for my company party. I love the people I work with and we had a lot of fun! This is the marketing team. 

Solitude

We spent Father's Day with my family at Solitude. It was gorgeous! You've done it again, summer. 

If you hold really still the humming birds will land on your finger. It was darls.

Brovers

Love my dad - this is a stance that happens often at my house.

All photos courtesy of my iPhone - no joke. I'm so in love with it still.

Life As We Know It

Our life as we know it - a quick run down.

I got my hair done! I finally decided to stop talking about it and start doing it. For most people this probably wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I have never in my life been to a real salon. My mom has ALWAYS done my hair. It was fun and I really love how it turned out. 

I finished school for the year - finally really actually DONE! And it feels so good! I cleaned out my classroom

And said goodbye to room 202.

It was surprisingly sad saying goodbye to my students on the last day of school. Some of them won't be coming back next year, and that was really hard. Most of them were crying! (Which of course made me cry) It's only been a week and I feel like I should be going back soon to see them in my classes, but it's over! So strange. I guess I'll get used to it eventually. 

Don't get the wrong idea . . . I am SO GLAD to have the summer off! I've been waiting all year for it to be June. 

I made Rod play hooky last Friday afternoon and we got one more day out of our Pass of all Passes from last year. It was crowded up in thurrr! But still so fun. Rod told me he thinks they should have an adults only day at 7 Peaks - I told him no one would go except for us. 

This was my first official week of not teaching. Lots of people have asked me "what are you going to do with all that free time??" As much as I'd like to stay in my pajamas until noon and go to the pool everyday I decided to make good use of my time. This month I am taking 3 different classes. The classes are each 4 days long and will give me continuing education credit. This week was the state's Human Sexuality course. It was really interesting and full of lots of "what not to do" and "don't ever say" it was very beneficial. This was a big year for Sex Education in Utah. Luckily the bill that proposed making all schools in Utah teach Abstinence Only Sex Education was vetoed by Governor Herbert. Most schools in Utah (most, not all) are Abstinence BASED rather Abstinence ONLY, which allows teachers to at least touch on the topic of contraceptives. I could talk about the benefits of Sex Education all day long - but that's kind of weird, so I won't. Let's just say I am very glad our Governor made such a wise decision. The worst part about this class was that it was all the way in Kaysville, which made my commute an hour each way. My smoothies and a little bit of Radio From Hell got me through that drive. So glad my next class (Human Physiology) is MUCH closer. 

After class my afternoons are pretty open. I made it to the pool on Wednesday - it was glorious. 

Rod is keeping busy with school and work. I think he tells me everyday how glad he is that it's Summer and that Summer beats the crap out of Winter. I think I would have to agree. 

Side note - I found this gem on my phone:

Pretty much sums up how happy he makes me. 

Remy is growing up so fast! He's now at his naughty teenage boy phase (meaning he likes to hump everything). 

Why is his bed upside down in this picture?

He humped it until it flipped over and then he was too tired to do anything about it so he just decided to take a nap on it HAHAHA. We are so proud. 

We love him.

Last weekend we broke in our fire pit. C+A came for tin foil dinners and s'mores. It was so fun! Minus that Lehi wind. 

Here's to many more summer nights in our backyard! 

Summer Kickoff

On Memorial Day, we woke up and decided we wanted to do a hike. We drove up the Alpine Loop to Stewart Falls. Besides getting slightly carsick, it was an awesome drive. We're already excited to do it again during the fall leaves.

We also decided to take Remington. We want him to be an outdoorsy dog, so we figured we better start early. Unfortunately, it had snowed for a couple of days before, so the entire hike was a slushy muddy mess. We were fully expecting to have to carry Remi most of the way, but he pulled us all the way to the top and back, all 4 miles. He loved being muddy and seeing lots of other dogs. 

This is Tanya's last week of school! This past weekend, her dance company performed before the school musical. She also choreographed one of the dances in the musical, so it was fun to go and watch it and meet a bunch of her students.

"Super Ladies/Papi" by JLo

IT'S SUMMER!

Loving Life in Lehi

I can't believe we have been in our house for over a month! We are loving everything about this new adventure. Our house is coming together and we even have grass now (with trees and bushes soon to come).

We are so excited for barbecues and bonfires this summer.

Aside from working on our house we are having fun making friends and getting to know our ward a little bit. We have already met so many nice people, it's great to feel so welcomed.

Last night we went out with some friends from our ward to a restaurant called "Porter's Place." It's an extremely old building on Main Street in Lehi. It used to be called the "Hot Spring Brewery Hotel" and it was ran by Porter Rockwell who was Joseph Smith and Brigham Young's bodyguard. Pretty sure the place was haunted, but the food was good and the atmosphere was fun.

In other news, the end of this school year has become extremely busy! I am happy to say that in 1.5 weeks I will have survived my first year of teaching! Everyone says the first year is the hardest, so I am happy that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I had definite ups and downs, but I'll be honest - since I started teaching PE in January it has been smooth sailing. A couple weeks ago Rod escorted me to the end of the year 7th Grade Ball. At my school, they are very big on proper etiquette and ballroom dance and the year end ball is the culmination of everything they learned all year. They were short a few boys so Rod had to stand in and dance the whole night! Foxtrot, waltz, swing, salsa, etc. He was such a good sport. How cute is this picture?

So far this weekend has been really relaxing with my two favorite boys.

Life in Lehi is good!

May Days

We never thought there would be a day when our lives would be enveloped by the following boring things: blinds, floor polish, topsoil, curtain rods, and sod. Every free second has been spent getting our house set up, but it's finally coming together (and we actually have really enjoyed it). It's fun to have our own space to care about and make our own.

Let's just say that curtains = hell on earth. We bought and returned curtains and curtain rods from about ten different stores until we finally found a winning combo. Hanging them was a whole different story. 

We also tried to save some money by doing blinds ourselves. After hours of blood, sweat, tears, and many a wall patching (and some help from family), we finally got it down. Last night, we ceremoniously hung the last one. We no longer live in a fish bowl! 

The warmer weather has slowly brought back our desire to run. It's been nice to have new turf to explore like the golf course, Jordan River Parkway, and lots of trails. 

We also like spending time outdoors with him.

Unfortunately, he's getting tired of only having a 3'X5' patch of grass to play on. This next week (let's be honest - it will probably take a few) we're going to attempt to put in our yard. I've actually had a lot of fun drumming up these plans, and I'm hoping that we can make it happen.

Tanya is in her last month of school for the year. She says it's flown by, but she's excited for some time off. She started and coaches the dance company at her school, and this past week they had their first performance at an assembly and it was a success!

I'm officially done with my first semester of Grad School. It's been a lot harder than I thought, but I'm learning a lot. This past week and a half we've been on break, which has been so nice. Only having to worry about work is so easy, and I (already) look forward to that being a thing in a short year and a half.