My Birthday!! Yay for the big 22!!

Okay, so maybe 22 isn't too great or exciting of a number. I think I'm already to the point where I don't want to get any older. I'm done with birthdays! I want to stay 22 forever! Or go back to 21. Is it bad that I want to be done celebrating, and getting excited to get "one year older and wiser too"? I guess I'm just happy with where I am in life right now, and I don't really want anything to change. Well, for the most part. I do want our house to hurry and be done, but that's another blog. : )

About two weeks or so before my birthday, Bryan had me request the day off, and he did the same. He had some secret plans that I wouldn't find out about until the day came. I honestly was hoping that we would either go to Lagoon or to the Hogle Zoo. And I'm not going to lie, I really, really wanted it to be the Hogle Zoo. But I wasn't going to say anything to him! It was his day to plan and surprise me with!

The morning of my birthday, I awoke to Bryan making me yummy pancakes! Best birthday breakfast ever! I was grateful just for that! After we ate, I got to open my card and present from him. I had no clue what Bry had gotten for me, even after shaking the box. He totally surprised me, especially since "we are poor and we can't buy anything" until we get into our house. My present was a new digital camera with 10x optical, and an additional 6x digital zoom on top of that! Holy crap! It is a freakin sweet camera! My old one started dying a little while ago, and I don't think it has much time left (Which I guess is okay, considering I've had it for like 6 or 7 years now). I really wanted a colored camera (on the outside), so this one is a sweet blue color. I am totally in love with it! My pictures turn out so nice and clear! Ahh, he is so wonderful!

The breakfast and camera were just the mere beginnings of the most wonderful birthday ever! After a little bit of a drive, we pulled up at....

YES! The Hogle Zoo!!!

I don't know what all to say about the zoo, except it was awesome! The weather couldn't have been better, and we got to see most of the animals when they were more active - some we had to go back to later in the day, which was fine - we were in no hurry! Here are a bunch of pictures. I don't think they really need any explaining... but I'll probably say stuff about some of the pictures anyway :)

Super cute little monkeys!!!


The Red Panda

The best for last! The Tiger!

The end of our little visit at the zoo came somewhat as a relief. We had walked for several hours straight, and I was excited to sit down, and drink something cold and yummy! It was my choice for dinner, so of course I chose PF Changs. YUMMY!

With the exception of not getting to see or talk to some of my family, the day went absolutely perfect! And it ended with Snickers ice cream bars for dessert, and then a well-needed night of sleep! : )

Memorial Day Weekend!

So I know it's already like half-way through June...but we're a little behind on our blogging.

For memorial day weekend we went up to Idaho Falls to visit Alyssa (Ali's sister) and her family. It was also Tanner's 3rd birthday, so we had fun celebrating that with them. He has recently become obsessed with trains, especially all things Thomas the Tank Engine. I'm surprised he's still around, I used to watch that when I was like 2 feet tall!

Parker, our youngest nephew is growing up fast (seems like he was just born a couple months ago...), he's already over a year old and just about ready to walk. Even with all my coaching, he just doesn't seem all that interested in walking.

We all went on a picnic on memorial day, which was great. Except for the insanely huge present that a bird (maybe an ostrich?) left on my car window. Ali thought it was just about the funniest thing she had ever seen, she couldn't stop laughing about it all day. Literally, she couldn't stop laughing about it. She is actually still laughing about it as I write this, almost uncontrollably.

Ali was trying to get some action shots when we were throwing the frisbee around, as you can see, she vastly underestimated my insane mad jumping skills! Tanner also got really good at this amazing frisbee throw where he would be throwing it forward and it would end up like 10 feet behind him. Pretty impressive!

Good Times!!

Demolition Derby

Now some people might think it rather redneckish of us, but we love hitting up all the demolition derbys here in Logan. There is just something extremely enjoyable about watching cars smash into each other, catch on fire, etc.

There was something different this time though...a car that was actually in good shape! I don't think there was even a scratch on it. Maybe this was just extra incentive for everyone else to gang up on him. After about 10 seconds he had his back wheel completely ripped off (first picture below). About 10 more seconds and he not only got completely rolled over, but the other car ended up pretty much running over him as well. Good stuff, good stuff indeed!

Amazingly, they were able to pull the driver out and he was fine. That nice car of his sure looked a lot more like it belonged in the derby though! Good times!

All of you out there who think you're too civilized to attend such a barbaric event, I think July 11th is the next one! See you there!

Yay for Graduation & Family!

First, I have to make mention of our sweet baby Skye's lovely mess that she made before my mom came into town. She was very proud of it, and thought that her pile of litter was one of the best toys she had ever had.

My mom flew into Salt Lake on the Thursday before graduation. Sadly, my parent-in-laws & sister-in-law Michelle were sick, and so they met Bryan partway to bring my mom here that night. The original plan was to have to come down Friday morning, when the in-laws came here to help my sister-in-law Janette move out of her apartment. I am glad that my mom was able to come, and spent time with us and our friends Thursday night though. We had a fun end of the school year party, and I made my mom stay out and be social. It was really fun having her there! Friday afternoon, my sister and her four kids made the trip here to come for the weekend. It made for a super crazy weekend, but it was totally worth it! Graduation day went by really fast for me. I think I was more excited about Bryan graduating than he was. : ) We got several pictures, and I pretty much had to put a bunch of them up on here.

I am so proud of my awesome husband! He has worked hard to get his degree, and luckily for me, he is willing to take a break before going back and getting is Master's degree! : ) Yay for finally having Bryan time!


The Proud Parents!


Bryan and my sister's kids, and the "Wright" ladies with Bry & the kids.


Bryan and Big Blue!

After graduation, we had a fun little luncheon at Bryan's grandparents' house. We had lots of yummy food, and enjoyed spending time with our family. Bryan and the kids played Lasso Golf for a while. I'm horrible at it, but love it anyway!

Bryan helping Tanner, and Cole & Livy in the back playing on their own.

I think my sister's next to youngest child, Tanner, has the funniest personality of any kid I've ever known. He was crawling/running on all fours for a while. I really don't know if he was pretending to be an animal or what. It was just kind of random. And I love the other picture - I know it may not be the most flattering of my mom, but I had to post this of Tanner. He is OBSESSED with bugs! We had a ton of ants running around in the crack in the cement, and he was absolutely enthralled with them. That kid seriously is such a crack-up. And he's a doll too - but then again, my sister's kids are all adorable! Cross your fingers for us that some day, when we have kids, they will be at least somewhere close to how cute my sister's kids are! : ) But don't worry, it won't be happening anytime soon...

Baby Cows!

On Sunday, April 26th, our cousins Kent & Lieren Hansen blessed their adorable baby boy, Samuel. He has lots of hair, and is such a cutie! Of course, being me, I didn't take any pictures of that. Instead, I took pictures, and had Bryan take pictures out on the farm, after the luncheon after church. I've really been wanting to feed a baby cow (and some day a baby horse, and other cute animals!), and had my chance! Our cousin was out feeding the babies, so Bry and I headed out. I got to feed one with a bottle, as it had been sick, and is a little bit behind. It wasn't quite as exciting as I had hoped, but it was still fun, and I can now say that I've done it : ) The rest of the baby cows got buckets to drink their milk out of. It was really funny, cause they had milk all over their faces, and afterwards, they would suck each others faces to try to get all the milk off of their neighbor.

A couple of the baby cows were determined to get every last drop of milk out of their buckets. It was very entertaining. Probably because this was my first time watching baby cows drink milk... I'm sure not everyone finds it as funny as I did. : )

I decided that I really don't think I want a cow anymore. So we can take that animal off the list for our future zoo. I guess if we get them young enough, and make them not hate people, it would be okay. But none of the babies wanted me to touch them. I just wanted to pet them! They're so cute when they are little! The one I fed was around 12 days old or so. The ONLY baby cow that would let me pet it without freaking out was a cute little baby that was only 5 days old. It was also nice enough to slime my pants, my hand, and the sleeve of my jacket. But that's okay. It let me pet it. And amazingly enough, baby cows are really soft! They aren't so much when they get bigger, and I just figured they wouldn't be when they were smaller either. Guess I learned a couple new things that day : )

Aww, sweet baby cow!

Bry's Award, Our Lot, Our House & Awesome Decor

For those of you who don't know, Bryan has been going to school to study computer science. There was a dinner for all of those who were graduating this year at the Bluebird. There was yummy food, and some "words of wisdom" and such from some of the professors. One professor handed out a couple awards, one of which was for Bryan. The professors voted on who received this award: the Utah State University Computer Science Outstanding Senior Award. Guess Bryan is just a likeable person : )

Some other good news: we signed our papers for our lot and our house! The dig date is June 9th, and the latest it will be done is Oct. 12th, and we could begin moving in on the 19th. I'm SO excited! Here are a couple pictures of our lot from the front and back, and a picture of the model home, which is the same floor plan:

Our house will look a bit different however. We won't have a third car garage, or the fake windows on the roof, or the brick or probably even the same color of siding. But I'll post pictures as they get started, and as it progresses. I'm so excited! It is such a beautiful and open home on the inside, and will be perfect for us to grow into. It is a three bedroom, two bath on the main floor, and we will have an unfinished basement that we will finish as needed (or as we can afford!).

After having two sets of crazy neighbors living below us for over the first year at our apartment, we finally got someone a little bit more normal. It is an older lady, who lives by herself. We love having someone quiet below us, as well as someone who doesn't sit on our stairs and smoke or drink. However, there is one drawback to having an older, single lady living downstairs. It starts with a little story. Our managers had us go over to sign a new contract for our apartment. We went over everything, and we were told something that Bryan and I were both rather excited about. We have these flowerbeds in the front of the apartment that were kind of trashy, and not well taken care of at all. We were told that we can do whatever we want with these - plant flowers, or even a small garden - like tomato plants, etc. The next day, when I came home from work, I saw these two teenager-ish boys cleaning out the flowerbed. I figured that our managers had some boys from the ward come over and clean it out so that we wouldn't have to put much effort into making the area look nice. However, when I came home the next day, we had some bright, tall, green tulips that had popped up from the ground! After taking a little bit of a closer look, we came to realize that these were FAKE flowers. And yes, they were planted into the ground. It definitely made for a good laugh. But a day or two later, we had an even bigger surprise. Look at the picture below.

This is what Bryan and I came home to. More fake flowers "planted" in the ground, an eagle, skunks, creepy gnomes, deer, etc. So much for our garden.