Butch Cassidy

I know what you are thinking...2 posts in 2 days? What is going on? But I decided while I was on a roll, might as well keep it up.

This is from the Butch Cassidy 10k on Novemer 2, 2013. We made the trek down to St George and met up with Scott's sister Angela and her family!

I LOVE this race! I have done it twice now, and this time I cut my time by about 15 minutes!

His mohawk was a mess. I had to fix it.

There, that's better.

This is to copy the picture from a few years ago.  If you search my facebook you can find it...but I don't want you to. There is a reason I was able to cut 15 minutes!

Here are her super cute girls! Eliza is in the chicken costume...she was EGG-cited. And of course, Nora has to do everything Eliza does, so there she is, up on top of the fence too!

 The Butch Cassidy 10K is a race that you can find information on here. 
If anyone wants to do it with Scott and I this year, let me know!

In tradition with traveling with Aaron and Angela...and especially because we were AT Zion's, we couldn't pass up an opportunity to go on a hike! The rest of the pictures are from the rest of the day when we hiked a secret trail through the park. In super-sore fashion mind you.

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of all time of us! We are obviously very tired and worn out! But still smiling!

Isn't Zion's beautiful?

Scott was testing out some things his phone camera could do. We were stopped for a while because Eliza fell in the little creek and I think Gage needed a diaper change.

So pretty! I love the black and white. I might frame this! Except that if I blew it up the pixels would be terrible...I guess I have to travel back down to take some awesome pictures!

ALOHA!

Well, since most of you know, we went to Hawaii last year! We ran a half marathon, ate at some cool places, went snorkeling (like everyday!), lazed about the beach, ran on the beach, went kayaking, visited the temple and a ward, and looked around Pearl Harbor. Here is our trip in pictures! These will probably not be in order...

This is us on the plane! I posted this picture along with saying we were on our way to Hawaii. Scott was not to thrilled about that. I mean its not like our house has been broken into...oh wait....

My first half marathon! It was so hard! We did this on our first day there. We didn't even get to start on time because it took forever to find a place to park and then we had to walk to the starting line, and then we had to go to the bathroom. All of these things would not have been a big deal except that parking in Waikiki is crazy! Also, EVERY SINGLE WOMAN at that starting line had to pee. So that took forever.

This is us! Finally both done with the stupid race. I felt like I could race again on account of the energy drink that was handed to me as I crossed the finish line and Scott was about to throw up. This is totally a roll reversal from normal! 

This is our hotel! That is Scott that you can see in the bay. As soon as we were done with the half we came back to the hotel and got right in the water! 

This is our room. It is perfect for us!

This is the view from our hotel room. There is a blow hole really close to our window. Every single time a wave came in the blow hole would push the water straight up, and loudly. ALL NIGHT. I mean, it was great! (sarcastic smile and thumbs up)

This is us on our balcony taking a cute picture right before we go to a the Laie (LA-ee-a) 4th Ward. The ward was basically on temple grounds. We took a lot of pictures at the Laie Temple later.

This is Hanama Bay! It was super HOT. You have to go through a little training before you are allowed to go snorkeling here. This bay is on the other side of Oahu from where we were.

Yay Scott! Thanks for posing!

This place is significant, but I can't remember why. It seemed to be a tunnel mountain road...like it used to be the only way from one side of the island to the other.

Here is another view from that view point.

And since I made Scott pose...now I have to pose.

This is at Dole Pineapple Plantation. And yes. It is a bajillion degrees outside. That giant pineapple with ice cream on it is where I am headed. 

This is a super cheesy closeup, but I wanted to take a picture of the guy's shirt behind us without it being weird. He is totally wearing palm trees on his shirt to one of the gardens (located on the grounds in the Dole Pineapple Plantation) in Hawaii!

After waiting about 45 minutes we are finally on the Pineapple Express. This cute little train took us around the plantation. We saw some of the pineapple fields!

And there they are! Look at that red soil! Those bushes in the background is how pineapples are grown. I learned that contrary to popular belief, pineapples grow on bushes! They are super cute when they start to grow. They look like miniature pineapples. They have the stems and everything when they start, then they just get bigger. I learned that the pineapples in the store are actually ripe. They don't continue to ripen like other fruit after they are picked.

This is later when we were touring the gardens. They were so pretty!

One of the mornings before we went out snorkeling, we decided that we would make some breakfast. We found some tarro rolls and some rambutan (sp?). It was spiky on the outside and then it was slimy on the inside. You suck the slimy stuff off of the big pit seed in the middle. Appetizing.  Oh, you want to know about the iron...well that is what we used to heat up the rolls. I am pretty resourceful. 

That was the look on my face the entire time, until...

It is surprisingly good!

Behind us the beautiful Laie Temple. We came on a great day. There were about 10 people in our session. We did an endowment session and then did some sealings. The officiator in the endowment session had a bad case of the old person farts. Every time he stood up, and remember there were only 10 people, he would let one rip so loud that I tried not to look at Scott for fear of an outburst of laughter. And to make matters worse, we were the witness couple. So we had to look at each other once and while.

It was way fun to do sealings here! Some of the names that we did have 4 different temples on them! Washington DC, Columbia, SC, Mt Timpanogos, UT and now Laie, HI. Super cool. A couple stayed after the endowment session to do the sealings with us. They were the Kinni-kinni's. I am not sure if that is how you spell it, but they were great! Really nice, really large, really dark Polynesians. They thanked us for letting them participate with my family's work!
Speaking of Polynesians...

Our trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center was amazing! We walked around to the countries that are represented there, catching all of the shows and participating in some of the crafts. Our favorite show was Samoa. The guy was hilarious! Our camera died halfway through the day, so here is what we could get. The following pictures is the Parade of Floats. Each country represented has a float where a live band perched on a bridge played music from the country and the people on the float did a native dance. They are dressed in native outfits.

Hawaii. The dancers on the float are doing a Hula dance. Hula is a form of dance that tells a story. Each move corresponds to a word or phrase. This is how stories get handed down from person to person. They learn the story from the moves of the dance. It is actually quite slow and rhythmic. 

Tonga is doing a Welcome dance. 

They are the ones with the what American's think is Hula. It is very fast hip movements. That is why their grass skirts have the shelf on them. It makes the movement more visable. 

This is Tahiti. They are doing a wedding dance. It was so long! We went to the Tahiti area and watched the entire wedding day. It is really quite interesting. On the morning of the wedding, a Tahitian male dives to find a black pearl for his bride that he presents to her when they get married later that day. The wedding party consists of the parents and grandparents of each side. They all walk through the town and then follow the couple to their new house. 

Samoa was hilarious! They are actually rocking the float so much that a guy in the back falls off. (On purpose of course)

This is Fiji. They are doing a battle dance, I think. Those guys are huge! Like almost 7 feet tall. 

We did a full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. After we visited each country, we went to a luau! It was a lot of fun. Though, next time we will pay a little more money so that we are not in the cafeteria style luau. Still delicious food. I loved whatever the fish was that they had. And the papaya seed dressing! Omg. I bough some at the airport to bring home. Then proceeded to finish it in less than a week after being home. :-(
We saw the show at the end of the night. It was fantastic. Each of the countries participate as it is the story of a boy that travels through all the countries and learns and lives among the people.

This is us hang out in a WWII bunker by our hotel! We ran that morning along the beach and found this pretty close to our hotel. We decided to take some weird pictures.

I was trying to imagine what it would be like to see ships coming in from the bunker.

You honestly can't see very much. I never did learn about what the bunker was for.

We went kayaking through our hotel one morning. It was so much fun! We were able to see some really neat coral and we practiced surfing in our kayaks. I am actually pretty good at it...except when I biffed it. This is our action shot!

This is our relaxed shot.

I got the guts to stand up...and then immediately sat down. It was scarier than it looks. One of the instructors stood the entire time! Of course I am super competitive and thought to myself, "I can do that." Well, turns out, I can't. I can stand, I can't row while standing.

This is a turtle in the bay where we were kayaking! 

We hope you enjoyed reading about our trip! We loved it so much and are hoping to go back soon! If you go before us--let us know if you don't mind having 2 people tag along....

My Kitchen!

Well, I will eventually get around to three events that occurred at the end of last year: Hawaii, Butch Cassidy 10K, ReAL Salt Lake MLS Final in Kansas City, Scott's Christmas party at Rio Tinto Stadium and visiting NC, but first--here is a look at my new kitchen!

I redid the color, and we got a new table, and Scott and I made an ingenious pet closet!

So, the color is a beautiful mint green! With it up against my white cabinets and future white subway tile, I think it looks amazing!

Here is our new table...that we got for basically 50% off. There are two more barstools that we are going to pick up eventually.

Here is the cool cabinet that Scott and I made out of a wardrobe from Ikea! It is supposed to stand up tall, but we rotated it 90* and then put the doors on a hinge to each other so they would un-attach from the magnets we put in and fold onto each other. We hide all of our pet stuff in it.

 

We think its pretty nifty. Anyway, more to come on that other stuff...soon. I hope..

 

Catch-up, or Catsup, or Ketchup, now I'm hungry...dang it.

I know, its been a long time.

Here is an overview:

Brandee:
-Master's student. (SUPER nerd alert) I am getting a Masters of Mathematics degree from Utah State University. And no, it is not online, I am taking classes only offered on campus and are taped, then I watch the recording. It makes it extra hard. I am about half-way through right now, and am about ready to toss in the towel. I have to keep reminding myself that I don't have to keep the 4.0 (i know right!) I have right now for the entire duration of my degree.

-Club soccer coach. I am officially a FIFA licensed coach, with an E right now. This winter I will be working on my D license and eventually my C. I coach for a local club called Arsenal. I have coached the U10 and U11 girls. It takes a lot of time! But I get paid the exact amount I need to pay for my masters so it works out.

-Department chair. I am the head of the Westlake High School Math Department right now. Its pretty time consuming, and I get paid extra, but not worth double the amount of parents, meetings, and paperwork. (So much paperwork)

-High school soccer coach. I just got done with the girls JV season for 2013. I coached them into their first wins ever in the history of the school, including a win over rival high school Lehi. (the mascot is the purple pioneer, what the heck?)

Scott:
-work. This October marks one year since he became an official employee of Qartzdyne. I am still not entirely sure what he does, but he is now placed in a group with some other people from different departments of the company to get together and solve problems.

-Half marathon. Scott completed his first Half this year. With a time of 1:43. Up there with the Kenyans. Good job honey!

-Anniversary and birthday. He did an AMAZING job this year with our anniversary and my birthday. Finished the kitchen and got me some beautiful pearls!

BOTH:
-Ragnar. One of the last posts on here details my first Ragnar experience. Well, we have since run 2 more. In November we ran the Ragnar Las Vegas. That was a horrible experience because van 1 got over 2 hours behind and we had to leap frog. We just dropped people off at each of their starting points and just had to run before our new runners got to the drop off. Lame. We then were captains of a Ragnar team in June. That was a horrible idea. It was soooo stressful. People got hurt volunteers dropped out...good grief. But we finished 400 overall (out of 2500 teams). So that was cool.

-Half marathon. We both ran a half in Hawaii, more to come on that.

-Houston. Scott had a business trip this year in Houston. I decided to go with him, and that was boring. We barely had time to spend together and when we went to the beach in Galveston there was a HUGE thunderstorm, which turned out to be pretty cool with the lightning over the sea.

-Soccer. We went to a ton of ReAL games. We even went to a USA Men's National Team World Cup Qualifier!

-Ethan's visit. Ethan came twice!

And that about sums that up for us.
Hawaii post coming soon.