Tennessee Time - Vacation Part 1

I'm pretty sure that you've all heard that Kyle got accepted to Idaho State University's Physical Therapy program which starts in just over a week!  Well, before his spot at ISU came up (he was 12th on their waiting list), we were planning to move to Provo for a PT program there that started in May. So, we had made all of the arrangements to move and then his spot at ISU came up and we ended up with a few months off since ISU doesn't start until the end of Aug.  Time to vacation and visit family!  Our first stop was Tennessee.  We spent our first little bit of time in TN helping with projects around the house and at my parent's rental property.  We stained a deck, painted a shed, refinished a table, did some landscaping... kyle got to help move some heavy furniture so the carpets could be cleaned :)  And after our projects were over we got to play.  First off, we entertained company.  My aunt Delsa came down from Memphis to visit for a bit!  It is always so fun to see her!  And I got to meet my great aunt and uncle, Jorma and Liisa, from Finland!  When Sarah graduated high school she and my dad went to Finland for her senior trip and they stayed for part of their vacation with Jorma and Liisa.  It was a lot of fun to meet them and spend time with them.  They are two fun people!  While company was here we went on a lunch cruise on the General Jackson river boat.  It cruises down the Cumberland river, which is also the river that you can see from my parent's backyard in TN.  We cruised the other direction though and got to see downtown Nashville from the river.  It was a cool little lunch cruise and during lunch we were entertained by a comedian and some musicians. 

Liisa, Jorma, My dad as we were boarding the General Jackson

 

Here we are on the General Jackson with the Nashville skyline as our backdrop

Kyle and I also got to spend a night at my aunt and uncles' in Hurricane Mills, TN (just about an hour and a half from home).  They have a beautiful farm!  We went with Joyce (my aunt) to visit the Amish - something Kyle had never seen before.  We bought some of their tasty baked goods and got to meet an Amish family that's really close to Joyce and was also close to my cousins while they were growing up.  So that was neat!  The Amish are very friendly people.  We also got to spend an evening playing baseball with Davis, my cousin Nikki's boy.  He was quite the ball player.  And Troy (my uncle) took us fishing in his ponds.  With our first few catches, he taught us the camera trick to make our fish look bigger.

Same fish, but doesn't it look so much bigger when you hold it out in front of you? :)

Isn't it a beautiful lake?

The next day we went fishing again and, well, let's just say there was really no camera trick needed :)

They were both HUGE fish but I'm pretty sure the one I caught was bigger.  My arm felt like it was going to break from just holding the fish out for the picture. I'll have to improve my upper body strength for next time. Hehe.  Also while we were visiting, Joyce treated us to some scrumptious food at the Log Cabin restaurant. The restaurant which my grandpa built and Troy and Joyce now own.  I remember always loving to eat there as a kid and it had been forever since I'd been there. 

 I stole this photo off the internet since I didn't think to take one while we were there

The food was just as yummy as I remembered.  We had a lot of fun and it was good to get to spend some time with Troy and Joyce!

While in TN we also got to spend some time in Gatlinburg.  It's a touristy little town up in the Smoky Mountains.  We got to do some pretty hikes up to different waterfalls. 

On this particular hike, Kyle and I were ahead of my mom and dad when we spotted this fallen tree that made a perfect bridge across the water.  We got on and scooted out and waved to them as they hiked up.  We really felt like we had scooted out a lot further than the picture shows.  It was a little frightening though so I'm not surprised that we hadn't made it as far as we thought. 

At the top of this hike there was another falls that we could walk behind

 

And on the way down we posed for a group photo

We also did a hike up to a water fall called Laurel Falls.  It was 1.3 miles to the falls.

Here we are at the top.

Pretty much right after we started back down from laurel falls a Huge rain storm hit.  Hehe.  We went over a mile in the Pouring rain.  It was actually pretty fun to get drenched but then I was cold on the car ride back to the hotel.  :)

Pausing under some branches during the downpour for a kodak moment

There were also some trails to some historical sites; old churches and farm houses.  While driving one of the looks with the historical sites we saw some baby black bears!!  Sadly, I took photos of them on my mom's camera and forgot to get the photos before we left.  But I did get this photo:

Hehe.

There was actually a gigantic spider in there that I climbed up to look at after Kyle.  It was the size of a baseball. Freaky. Back in town Kyle and I took the ski lift up to the smoky mountain look-out.  

 This is the lift we rode, it was Really steep

 We didn't buy the expensive souvenirs up top but we did opt for the 25cent binoculars

While in Gatlinburg we also spent a little bit of time in Pigeon Forge, it's another touristy town probably 20 minutes outside of Gatlinburg.  In Pigeon Forge there is an outlet mall and there are also some of the Coolest go-karts I have ever seen.  I'm talking two-story go-kart tracks with spirals up and spirals down and little "hills."  My dad, Kyle and I got arm bands for the go-karts and the it felt more like we were driving on a roller coaster track.  Pretty sweet!  Gatlinburg sure is a fun little town and the smoky mountains sure are grand!

Finally, since we were in TN for most of the month of May, we were there just in time to celebrate Sarah's 21st birthday!  WOO-HOO!!!  We actually celebrated a few days early since her true birthday isn't until June 1st.  But I was glad we got to celebrate with her!

 Sarah and her yummy carrot cake

So, that was our month in TN!! If I left anything out it was purely accidental.  I think next time (in several years or more. . .) when we get to go on a long vacation I'll have to blog while traveling and then just go back and insert the pictures later.  But it's been fun to go through all the vacation pictures and write up the stories. So that's it for today but there is still more to come!

Last Little Bit of West Jordan, UT

Before I post about our last few months of vacation I figured I should say a little blip to cover our final few adventures while living in West Jordan!  We attended a couple of sporting events downtown and made use of the public transportation on those nights.

Here we are on the Trax

The first event we went to was a Utah Jazz B-ball game.  Before the game they flew this blimp around the arena to advertise, I thought that was pretty funny. 

The players are down there warming up and the blimp is flying by

 

 And this is both of us :)

They played the Oklahoma City Thunder and they Won! So that made it extra fun. Then, a few weeks later we went to a Utah Blaze arena football game.  We had a groupon for this game so we got a free shirt - Kyle is showing it off below. 

This game was not very crowded at all and after the 1st or 2nd quarter Kyle and I walked down a few flights of stairs and claimed some new, much closer seats . . . hehe.  No point wasting the closer view with empty seats.  I don't remember if the Blaze won or not that night but it was a close game which made it a good one to watch. 

I also got crafty and made us some new accent pillows for our couch.  I was getting tired of all brown.  They turned out very cute but they are definitely a little lop-sided. . . I've got to practice keeping the stitches strait on the sewing machine, I just get really excited/anxious to finish, and want to go fast, hehe. 

 

This is how they turned out!

I tried to do a good job of securely sewing those buttons down but I still get paranoid that one of the buttons is going to pop off.  Hopefully that won't be too soon :) And there is always glue.

Kyle and I also managed to get a hike in before leaving Utah.  Just one though (sad, I know).  We went to the area planning to do this one hike that was supposed to have a waterfall but that hike was on the side of the Mt that was still too snowy to go on.  So, we started up the trail on the other, less-snowy side.  It was a good hike and we were getting close to the end when all of the sudden Kyle was like "Hey Sharon - that looks like a bear."  I stopped and looked and then Kyle was like "oh man, that REALLY looks like a bear." And sure enough there was something big and dark moving across the way... When Kyle originally said he saw a bear he was trying to play a trick on me and thought it was just a rock or something that resembled an animal - But then it MOVED.  We watched it for a few minutes and finally could tell that it was a moose and not a bear.  But that was a scary few minutes.  And when we realized it was a moose we ventured a little further down the trail and it was still scary because that was a big ol' moose. 

Even in the picture it sort of looks like a bear, huh?

 

After we passed the spot where we spotted the moose we didn't get to go much further because we had reached the snow and a little creak/run-off and the ground got mushy.  But after we survived the hike we decided it was pretty awesome that we got to see some wildlife on our one hike. 

And most importantly we celebrated our two year anniversary!  Time really does fly and I already feel like April 17th is just around the corner again.  For our anniversary we played some putt-putt. It was a pretty neat/elaborate course. But the best part was that we were with each other!

:)

More to come SOON!

New Furniture

It's been pretty beneficial to have a husband who works at a furniture store :) We've gotten Great deals on a tv stand and a new kitchen table lately. Our favorite place to shop is the damaged section.

Here is our awesome TV stand!!

Do you like it? Can you tell that we had to fix it up a little bit? When we got it a glass panes had been busted out of one of the doors. We were originally thinking we could get another piece of glass for the other door but then we realized we could really do whatever we wanted in the middle of the doors. I found these cute little tile-ish things (they are made to be wall hangings_ at Michaels and we put 4 together in each door opening.

I'm still debating if I want to do more to it (maybe put some trim in there like used to be on the glass). But for now it is good!

How it used to be

So we got this stand for about one third of retail price and then spent $12 bucks to fix it up! A fun little project. And then most recently we got a new table. It's a cute little square counter-height table. We are enjoying it!

Comic Relief

At the end of January we got to cash in on one of our Christmas gifts from my aunt Delsa. She got us tickets to Brian Regan's show in Salt Lake. We went out to get some sushi and then headed to the show.

Waiting for the show to begin!

Here he is!

We had a lot of fun. He and his opening act (can't remember who it was...) were both really good! Thank you much Delsa!

Christmas Time Again!!!

We had another great Christmas together! Kyle surprised me and got a tree for us this year. Last year in Rexburg we weren't at our apartment much during Christmas time so we didn't get a tree for ourselves. But we got a tree this year! It was a lot of fun and made our apartment smell like evergreen :)

Decorating the Tree

Sarah was asked to be a bridesmaid in her former roommates wedding a little before Christmas time. So my family came down and spent some time with us on their way to Idaho for the wedding. We had a mini Christmas with them and that was really nice. We went to see Voicemale (male a capella group) in concert at Thanksgiving Point and before the show we drove through the Christmas light they had set up. I love a capella music - it's so cool what they can do with their voices. While my family was here we also went to the temple.

Oquirrh Mt Temple (hope I spelled that right...)

Then mom and Sarah took off to Idaho and my dad took off for California to see his mom and sister. I got to see some of the photos from the wedding and Sarah looked great and it looked like a fun wedding. This was the wedding for her roommate that I did engagement photos for. It would have been fun to be able to go. After my dad spent a few days in Cali, he took off with his mom and sister for a road trip to Colorado - where my cousins were. On their way through to Colorado they stopped by to say hi.

Kyle, Me, Grandma Anja, Aunt Suvi, Dad

And then. . . it was actually time for our Christmas Vacation!!! We spent Christmas in California! It was the first warm Christmas of my life. The weather was So nice and I wished that I hadn't already packed away my summer clothes so that I could have them in that warm Cali sun. While we were there we got to do a lot of fun things! We rode four wheelers through the desert, took bikes through the island Coronado, visited the new Mormon Battalion in Old Town, went on a hike and spent some time in Balboa Park taking family photos!

At the top of the hike!

We looked so cool back in 1847. . .

And of course I had a lot of fun taking some family photos!

Christmas day was a lot of fun! We got up early and did gifts and breakfast before church at 9. Then we all had a nice nap after church (at least I know I crashed). Kyle and I got a great camping stove and an awesome wireless internet streaming blu-ray player! We've now collected all of the Harry Potter movies on blu-ray, hehe.
Christmas was so nice!! I keep telling Kyle that I can't wait till he is in school again so that we will have longer vacations. Thank you Hadley Family for a Wonderful Christmas!!

One Quarter of a Century!

I am very behind on blogging. . . in case you haven't noticed. SO, here I am at the computer to get caught up it all. And the first order of business is (drum roll. . . . . . ) KYLE'S 25th BIRTHDAY!! Yay! We had a fun evening, starting with gifts. I always have a lot of fun getting gifts for Kyle; his birthday and holidays are pretty much the only time I'm allowed to shop for him, hehe.Opening his gifts!

Showing off some of his loot. . .

After he opened his gifts we headed out for his Birthday dinner!! Ever since we moved down here to Utah Kyle had been wanting to eat out at Tucanos. . . It's a Brazilian grill style restaurant and it is Yummy. The waiters come around with big skewers of different gourmet grilled meats cut you off whatever you want. And for all of the side items they have a massive buffet with all delicious foods.

Here we are! We got the Brazilian lemonades and they were very good - just like everything else!

And Kyle was a good sport and let the waiters come over and sing him happy birthday while he danced around with this tambourine! It was a lot of fun. Hope your 25th year is a great one Kyle, Love You!

Birthday and Halloween

Birthday Time Again
I recently turned 23! Kyle and I both had work but we celebrated that night. We started out by opening gifts!
Thanks everyone for remembering me during my birthday! I felt like I had So Many gifts. Not that gifts are what matters, but it was still fun to get them. :)

Here I am with two of my favorite gifts from my wonderful husband! He got me a Snuggie!! I've always thought a snuggie would be a neat thing to have and I was SO right! I Love my snuggie, it's so warm and cozy and it has sleeves and so I can use my arms and not get cold. It's everything the infomercial says! I could really be their next spokes woman. Also, I got a nice wii gun and hunting game. I'm not so good a wii games that involve racing or sports, but shooting I can do! So those have been fun gifts. I think Kyle is secretly jealous of my snuggie because I'll find him using it sometimes, hehe.

After gifts we went downtown to Bruges Waffles & Frites. It's a tiny little Belgian restaurant that, of course, has been featured on Man vs. Food. On the left is Kyles sandwich, the 'machine gun' which was the sandwich featured on Man vs. Food. It's got sausage, Frites (which are double fried french fries) and special, Belgian sauce. On the right is my 'waffle monster' which features ice cream, strawberries and a peanut-butter type spread that is made out of cookies and actually has no peanuts (i hope that made sense, I can't remember the real name). Yummy!

And here I am with my birthday Hershey pie :) 23 has been good to me so far. To celebrate my new age I have signed up to run the Utah Valley Marathon on June 6th! Kyle outlined a training program for me (it's convenient being married to a certified personal trainer) and so far, so good!

Halloween in Utah
I really felt like we would get some trick-or-treaters this year, since we are in a complex that has a lot of kids and since we are in the middle of a neighborhood. I got some candy and was all ready to pass it out and tell the kids how great they looked in their costumes. But no one came. Oh well. I even set out our awesome jack-o-lantern and everything
This must have been what scared the trick-or-treaters away. . . It was supposed to be a witch but I think the nose makes it look more like a scare-crow. Not our best pumpkin ever but it was still fun to have. Another Fall-ish thing we've done this year was to making caramel apples!! The caramel apple kit was a birthday gift from Kyle's mom.
We weren't the best at dipping the apples but they sure turned out yummy! Well, that's what's happening with the Hadleys for now! We sure are excited for the Holidays!