Metallica!!!

Last week I went to Chicago to hang out with the Lunds and to see Isaac's favorite band, Metallica!! It had been over a year since I had seen the kids and it was so fun hanging out with them. Instead of shipping Christmas to them in December I decided to take it with me instead. I am so glad I did since I was able to see Grant put together his Star Wars Lego set. He was so proud that he was able to put it together by himself. Like and idiot though, I didn't take any pictures of it.

On Monday, as we were getting ready to walk out the door I reached into my backpack to get my earrings and I sliced my finger on my razor. I had put it in there to keep it away from Evy since she wanted to hold everything in my makeup bag. Of course I forgot about it and cut myself. I put a bandage on it and we were off. Little did I realize that this one bandage was not going to be enough. By the time we reached Chipotle's for dinner it was starting to leak through. We headed over to Target next door and bought additional bandages. This still was not enough. Within 10 minutes it had completed soaked through and was dripping down my hand. Khania and I immediately headed over to the first aid room while Isaac stood in line for his t-shirt. The paramedics asked me all kinds of questions about how I hurt myself. Each time I told the story I felt like a bigger idiot. After they bandaged me up they said I would need to keep my hand elevated for the rest of the night. Let me just say, after 3 hours of holding my arm up I was sore!!

About an hour later the show finally started. This was one of the best shows I have ever attended. While I enjoy Metallica, I never thought of myself as a fan. After this show I now consider myself a fan. I bought their album when it came out and enjoyed it, especially the song being played on the radio. When I saw the songs live and the energy these men put into it, songs I merely enjoyed became ones I loved. I would definitely go see them again!!

These pictures are courtesy of Khania on my camera (I couldn't push the button with my finger). Camera's were not allowed, but since I was bleeding everywhere they really didn't search me and I got it in.

Give Me Some SUGAR!!

I had the opportunity to go to New Orleans, in December to attend the Sugar Bowl. I had never been to New Orleans before and when Tracy mentioned she had two extra tickets to the game, I jumped at the chance to go.

Yummy Beignet Restaurant


Cool palm tree at the city park

This is the cemetery where Anne Rice's vampire books took place and many movies have been filmed here


How I always imagined the streets would be like.

I arrived late on the 30th and spent the next three days exploring the city and the surrounding areas with Tracy and Norm. It was crazy to walk around the city and see a sea of red. With the Utes Crimson red and Bama's red, everywhere you went there was red. During the days leading up to the game, Bama fans were talking a lot of smack about how their team was going to roll over Utah. Every time a Bama fan walked by another fan they would say "Roll Tide, Roll". It got really old. We also noticed a lot of shirts that said "Got Nick?", it took us a minute to realize they were talking about the coach. On the way to our hotel before the game there were several Bama fans that were going the other way that were so obnoxious. They kept saying Utah had a good run and it was going to end tonight.

At the game it was totally crazy. Utah made up about 25-30% of the crowd while the remainder was Alabama. From the very beginning it was obvious that the Utes were underdogs, from the size of the audience to the size of the marching band it was no secret Alabama was going to win. That is until the first quarter began. By the end of the quarter Bama fans were completely deflated. The Utah section was going crazy and the rest of the dome were sitting in disbelief. Alabama completely underestimated Coach Whittingham and his team. They did an awesome job and made the expense of traveling so far well worth it.

King Louie

Need I say more?

Confetti galore!

Long Past Due

Okay I am finally going to update my blog....

LOTOJA

In September Isaac completed Lotoja and stayed with me a few days while he was getting used to the higher elevation. It was good to see him since it had been almost a year since I was in Chicago last. On his first day here he totally guilted me in to riding with him. I hadn't ridden much since the MS150 due to an injury and then of course my complete and total obsession with the Olympics. It felt great to get out again and I have been riding an average of 3-4 times a week since then.

Isaac at one of the rest stops (photo courtesy of Sheila, coach Mark's wife)

ECHO



My family went boating up at Echo and had so much fun. Michael once again showed us all up. I guess it doesn't hurt that he gets to go out all of the time and demo boats. He is getting really good at surfing and even Christopher got up once. I always sit up front and this time I fell asleep and no one noticed. I had reapplied sunblock 45 twice, but I still was fried. I was so sore the next day it hurt to even change positions.

Chris trying to surf

Mike surfing

Natalya is BACK!!!

Natalya came back from her home in the Ukraine on September 24th. It was so weird to have her gone for four months. She has become a part of the family and it is nice to have her back. I hope that she is able to work out the visa issue and bring her daughter over soon. Michael went over there for two weeks to meet her parents and see her home country. I will post some pictures as soon as I can get her to send me some.

ESS

Ali left ESS on Sept. 12th. It has been lonely over in my corner since she is gone. I still see Em every now and then, but she is soooo far away :-).

Ali, Em and I on Ali's last day in front of the office

Actually, I have been extremely busy since she left. I have become the go to person for several fraud investigations. It has been very time consuming. I am always amazed at what people think they can get away with. I have also been reviewing files (R12s) for 3 out of 4 of the assistant controllers the last two months. I am so sick of looking at them I wanted to scream with joy when I finished the last one on Monday.

Stay Tuned....

Okay I have heard from several of you that I have not been updating enough. I know it has been a couple of months, but I am working on it. I am still gathering a few pictures and then I will post. Hopefully in the next couple of days. :-)

Post Olympic Let Down

Like many others in the world I have watched the Olympics these last two weeks. Okay I will admit, I did a little bit more than just watch a few events. I was a bit obsessed with the entire thing. I dvr'd two channels to watch when I got home each night. In the morning I couldn't go to work until I finished watching the match or race. I watched a little of pretty much everything. I could not believe some were even sports. I mean seriously, doubles badminton? I am sure the players in these events trained extremely hard and were excited to make it to the Olympics, but at what point do you say to yourself "I want to go to the Olympics playing doubles table tennis"?

I loved watching each of the swimming events. I was so excited to see Phelps win each of his medals and the freestyle relay was intense. Dara Torres is such an amazing woman, her devotion to the sport is unbelievable. I was so impressed by her to have the courage and sportsmanship to approach the judges to have them delay the heat so a fellow athlete could have the chance to swim after her suit ripped.

My favorite by far was beach volleyball. I am a beach volleyball junkie to begin with, but this year was especially fun. I had only slightly paid attention to the sport the last few years. I knew Dalhausser and Rogers and loved watching them each event that I caught on TV. But coming into the Olympics there was an all new team for me to really cheer for. The first time I saw Gibb and Rosie was their opening match and thought wow, he looks so familiar. I couldn't figure out why until the announcers said that he was from UT and had 11 sibs and was a twin. At that moment I knew this was Jake of Jake and Cole. I had heard so much about the twins while Joy and Dale were living at her in-laws while they served a mission. Each time a camera would pan out over the audience I would search to see if I could see Joy. I never did, but Jake put a really good picture of Dale on his blog.

Then of course, there was the Professor and the Thin Beast. I absolutely loved watching them. Their matches were always late at night and I would try to stay up so I could watch them live. I am sure that my neighbors were annoyed each time I did because I was yelling and cheering for them the entire time. The one time that I didn't make it and fell asleep, I woke up the next morning and couldn't go to work until I saw the entire game. I kept yelling at "the boys" to hurry up and win because I needed to get to work!

Now that the 17 days are over I don't know what I will do with myself. :-) I guess I will just have to go back to having a good nights' sleep, cleaning my house, weeding my garden and I might even have enough energy to get back on my bike again. I look forward to the 2010 Vancouver games and the chance to people watch again and hope that I get just a glance of Myriam (works for the city organizing the games) and anticipate the announcement of the 2016 games and hope that they will be held in Chicagoland.

breaking dawn

Like everyone else I know, I picked up the final book in the Twilight series this weekend (Saturday morning, not at midnight like Em). I started and finished it on Saturday. I started getting sick on Friday night and spent all of Saturday either reading the book or sleeping. All of Stephenie Meyer's books are easy reads and this is no exception. She did a nice job of wrapping all of the story lines up. Over all it was an enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend it. Now we all just have to wait for the movie coming out in a few months.

Heber Valley Girls Camp

Last week I spent time at my Stake Girls Camp. This year it was at the Heber Valley Campground. We stayed at the Marjorie Pay Hinkley campground. It was super special being there since it was named after such a special lady. We had so much fun there. We saw a couple of badgers, moose, deer and tons of potguts.

All the girls next to the Reeder Trail Sign. We spent an extra hour on our hike because of this trail. We eventually found a sister missionary and she led us back to the Abish Trail and we made it back to camp safely.

Ashley and Cambry on the Challenge Course. Michelle, Kaylynne and April there to support them.

Kylee, Megan, Kelsey, Hilary and Talor on the Challenge Course.

Jennifer, Amanda, Ami and Camille on the Challenge Course.