Thursday, September 29, 2011

Sister Sneak

It's time once again for our Sister Sneak with my Manwaring sisters. This is always a great time without kids or husbands around for us to be able to bond, relax, party, and just be girls. Above: Emily and Natalie, Becky and Me, Emily and Natalie-again, b/c for some reason all pictures of Katie are missing...hmmmm?, Missy, Kaylin and Anna. This year Becky hosted, and we all went to Park City, UT.

Our FAVORITE part of the entire excursion is ALWAYS our Favorite Things. When we see the bags come out (my mother-in-law always makes them so cute) we get as giddy as kids on Christmas morning.

This year Anna gave cute little Halloween light bulbs for decorative candlesticks; Becky gave Turvie-Turbans (I ALWAYS call them topsy turvies, I don't know why I can't get it right) so we can enjoy a great soak in the tub without getting our hair wet; Amber had each of our names engraved on darling charms for necklaces (I can't wait to get a nice chain to wear it on!); I gave Florence Chocolates (the Princess Michelle's are THE BEST) and bookmarks b/c I love to read; Missy gave Melaleuca lotion and lip balm (if you haven't tried the Renew lotion, it really is worth finding some to try.); Emily gave us all glitter toes; Kaylin gave us body butter made from goat milk (which I have used everyday since the sneak); and Katie (notice no picture of Katie AGAIN) gave Halloween themed Bath-n-Body Works soaps; Natalie said her favorite thing was to try new things. Her "thing" deserves a segment all to itself. More on that later.

We enjoyed spending time together at dinner at Ghidottis Italian Restaurant.

Thank goodness we enjoyed our time together because the food wasn't all that great for some of us.

These three were sorely disappointed with their meals. I had the whole wheat linguine and grilled chicken. It was okay, but nothing I'd recommend to anyone. However, I hear the salmon and shrimp scampi meals were really good. Too bad I don't eat seafood.

After a full day of shopping, eating, and soaking in the hot tub, we cashed in on Emily's glitter toes. We were up until 1:30 AM playing salon. Didn't our feet turn out SO cute!

Bright and early the next morning it was time to try Natalie's favorite thing of "trying new things"....Anti gravity Yoga. Okay, seriously, this was A LOT of fun! It made for some awesome memories and whole bunch of giggles. I did end up getting EXTREMELY nauseous (we were swinging a lot, and sometimes upside down) and I had to sit out for a few minutes, but I loved it. I didn't realize how much work I was doing until the next day when several of my under used muscles ached. I really wish Idaho Falls offered this type of yoga, I'd totally do it again.

We finished out the Sneak by attending the General Relief Society Broadcast in Salt Lake City. It's so neat to be able to be in the actual building with the speakers for this annual meeting. If you'd like to hear an extremely inspiring talk go read Elder Uchtdorf's talk on "Forget Me Nots". This was the perfect ending to weekend.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Cougars and Utes

It's BYU football season again! Jarom and Ben have been having a "ball" watching the games on the HUGE screen projector (which business partner Jeffrey is letting us borrow). Can you even see Jarom is this picture above? He's there, I promise.

Just in case you didn't spot him, here he is. The screen is big, so big it sort of makes me motion sick, but the boys love it.

We decided to allow a few Utes fans into the house for the big BYU/U of U rivalry game. Yah.....it wasn't pretty for us BYU fans. HORRIBLE to say the least. We took a beating that just would NOT end. And b/c of that beating, Jarom lost a bet and had to wear a red Utes tie to church the next day. NEVER thought I'd see that. (He allowed exactly ZERO pictures.) But, on a better note, our party was fun.
We had appropriately colored treats, attire, and even the poor dogs got roped into the competition. Thanks to the Englemans, Rushs, and Ben and Kaylin for coming over. It was a great time, but Jarom says having Utes in his house won't happen again any time soon. LOL! (We'll just have to party together on a NON-BYU night.)

Segways

Adam and Jennie rented Segways for a weekend. They were kind enough to let us try them them out.

My kids were in heaven! Alyssa has begged to buy one and told me she'd be Paul Blart for Halloween if I got her one. As funny as that'd be, sorry sis, no can do.

Even Carter was able to give it a go. They feel a little squirrely at first (honestly the little kids caught on WAY faster than the adults), you kind of rock and roll until you can find your balance. But after that they are a lot of fun to roll around on. Thanks for letting us play Cromwells!