The Joys of Provo, Utah

Since Blake and I are moving to Seattle next week we've been trying to do all the things in the area that we've wanted to do, but never have. My favorite thing I've been doing almost everyday lately is hiking the Y. The other day I went in the morning before work and it was so quiet and peaceful. I even saw 2 deer while I was up there. Today Blake and I took advantage of the Timpanogos Caves. We were able to meet up with the Chariton's and hike to the caves and then take the cave tour. It was so cool!

So last week I was driving to my last day of work, and I got to thinking about our upcoming move. Isn't it funny how we don't really appreciate the life we have until a change is in store and then we start to count all the great things that we do have in our life?! For instance I've gotten used to Provo and Utah in general, but at times I find myself still thinking that it doesn't feel like home. Now that we're leaving soon, I really think I'm going to miss Utah. I'm going to miss the beautiful mountains, the nice weather, the friendly people, all the fun things to do outside, our family that live in the area, the job that I did have, all of the wonderful friends we've made, and the great, little one bedroom apartment that we live in. On the other hand I am looking forward to moving closer to other family, being able to mountain bike and hike year round, the beautiful ocean, fresh seafood, the new place that Blake and I will live in, our future dog that we're going to get, and the great new job that Blake will have. We're finally moving on to the next stage of our lives. It's exciting, scary, and unknown. We'll keep you posted once when we get to Seattle.

Blake's Corner - My Blog within the Blog

I have decided to also participate in this "Blogging" stuff and I am calling it Blake's Corner. From time to time I will be posting the TOTALLY AWESOME things going on that Sheena might have left out. For example, I currently work as the Director of Sales at a web development company, Connect Networks. The experience has helped to enjoy some things I never quite saw myself doing.

One of those things occurred this past Friday. As a company we went and viewed the new Star Trek movie. I had "boldly never gone there before". I was actually quite surprised at how good the film turned out to be. I am not saying I am a converted "Trekkie", but I could feel the pull from Spock, Captain Kirk, and the rest of the crew.

I have included a picture that sums up the Star Trek experience below. For now, Live Long and Prosper.

Starving Student??? Why not!

Blake and I had so much fun yesterday. It started with Blake playing his intramural softball game, while I ran a few errands at record speed. We met back up to wash our cars inside and out-which they needed so badly. A quick shower after the car wash and then we decided to hike "Y" in Provo. I was telling Blake that there are a few things that we haven't done while living in Provo, and now that we're leaving I want to pack in as much of it as I can. So after the quick hike, which by the way I can't wait to do again before the move, we came home, changed and were off for a night of dinner and entertainment. So Blake bought a starving student card at the beginning of the year. It has all these great deals on it, but of course you usually have to spend money to save money. We have really enjoyed some of our date nights off this card, but last night was the best of all. We decided that we were going to collect on all the FREE stuff off this card. Blake called it "cheating the system" and that's exactly what we did. I wonder if anyone else does the same thing. We started by mapping out all the places we could take advantage of (we limited our collections to the Provo and Orem area only), and off we went. I've included some pictures of all the places we went. Check them out. It was a night of A LOT of food, and we had fun exploring around seeing some of these totally random places to eat. The whole night only cost us $7.99-we felt bad asking for waters at one place so we tipped them $1.00 and then we finished the night off with some mini golf which was buy one get one free. It was so much fun!!


Los 3 Amigos was our first stop for a free enchilada. They messed up on our order and added rice and beans-woops. Not our favorite enchilada-good thing it was free!


Next stop the Provo Towne Center Mall, for a free order of breadsticks at Villa Pizza food court.


This is the place we felt bad asking for waters and tipped them $1.00. It was totally worth the stop for a free large fry with fry sauce!


At Pier 49 we collected a cinnamon and sugar dessert pizza-pretty good but a little sweet.


At Blackjack Pizza we were able to get an 8inch cheese pizza.


Here at EZ Out Burger we collected a free hamburger!

Long Over Due

I have had all these pictures that I've been meaning to post and haven't got around to it. Most of them are from Blake's graduation. Did I mention how proud I am that he finished college and now has a new job in Seattle?! Graduation was long, but also so great to be there to see cross that stage and receive his diploma. Such an awesome accomplishment.


Halle and Cole had a sleepover at our house. We had so much fun.



Blake's brother Brandt came and visited us all in Utah when he was home on a short leave from Iraq.



Mikell also graduated from BYU with Blake

Seattle Here We Come!!!

As you all know Blake just graduated from BYU. We were still up in the air about what we would be doing and where we would be in the next few months. Well our answer came last week after several interviews, tears, worries, and still having a little bit of faith. Blake got offered a job at a company that he's really excited to work for and it happens to be in Seattle. We are so excited to be closer to our parents and other family. We have loved being in Utah and have really enjoyed being so close to Blake's siblings, but we are looking forward to this move. We are thinking that we will be making the trek out to Washington at the end of the month. It's funny when people ask us what we're the most excited for with the big move and we both agree that we can't wait to get a dog. We love dogs, or should I say that I really love dogs, and Blake's just along for the ride. We aren't too sure of where we're going to live, but we have family to stay with until we figure that out. It's going to be an adventure and we are looking forward to it.

What's New

The last few months have been nothing short of busy! Blake and I are finally feeling like things are somewhat getting back to normal around here. Between Blake interviewing for numerous jobs, my trip to the ER on Easter (by the way we just got the bill-YIKES and PS I'm fine), Blake graduating this past weekend from BYU, family being in and out of town, birthday parties, weddings, baby and bridal showers, and Blake and I trying to enjoy the nice spring weather; crazy, crazy, crazy.

Recently Halle and Cole had their first sleepover at our house. They did great, and completely forgot how much they missed there parents the minute we went to the movie store and picked out Lion King 2 and Barbie and the Princess Castle. (Did you know they made a Lion King 1 1/2 and 2?.. Blake and I were laughing at how bad the second Lion King was in comparison to the first one). It was fun to have them spend time with us, and nice to give Heidi and Jeff a little break to have more time with William and the newest addition to their family; Andrew. He's super cute and we love him.

Graduation was such a huge accomplishment this weekend. It literally brought tears to my eyes when Blake was able to get his diploma. It feels like a long time coming, and he deserves to be done and enjoy life a little. He's been so crazy busy lately between work, job searching, and finishing school. Now he can maybe get to bed before 2am on a more regular basis.

As far as what's to come in our near future...we don't know. We're in as much suspense as you are. Blake flew out today for a few more interviews for job positions in California and Seattle, and there's also a possibility we'll be staying in Utah to work for a web design company. We don't know yet, but we will keep you posted on what's to come.

February Recap

I've been so bad about updating our blog....sorry. Our past month has been busy, and Blake has the better computer between the two of us and he's always on it. By the time I get my laptop out, get it turned on, and try to connect to the Internet 30 minutes has come and gone. I know excuses, excuses. This past month I've been lucky enough to not have to work at the Gap on the weekends so we've been taking advantage of that. We've done a lot of cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and the occasional mountain biking (except on the road only). The weather is starting to tease us with a little glimpse of spring which gives me hope for sunshine around the corner. Blake and I both agree that we love the winter, but there's something about March, daylight savings around the corner, and spring on it's way that makes life seem a little brighter-no pun intended.




Blake and I had a great Valentine's Day this year. We decided to go cross country skiing up Vivian Park. We keep trying to make it to the top of the saddle, but we're always pressed for time. We thought if we tried cross country skis instead of snowshoes we could make it for sure because it takes less time. No such luck. We had to turn around to make it to dinner. So after skiing we headed in our snow gear to Sundance to have dinner at the Foundry Grill- it was delicious. We felt a little out of place because everyone was dressed up for the big date night, and here we are all wet and hat haired. After dinner we headed to Baskin Robbins where we picked up my favorite ice cream- Love Potion 31. It's the best and it only comes out around Valentine's Day. I would recommend checking it out next year. After ice cream we headed home to get cleaned up and watch a movie. It was a great day, but apparently it was too great because I ended up giving Blake a black eye that night with my head. See picture below. I felt so bad and it kind of put a damper on our movie watching, but I think Blake liked telling the story the next day at church.