dustin turns 24

Last weekend we celebrated Dustin's 24th birthday!  On Saturday we went boating with his family, and my two brothers and a friend came along.  It was our first time boating all summer (even though technically it was the first day of fall haha) and we had a blast!  The water was pretty cold, but you got used to it after a while.  I asked the husb why we didn't bring any wetsuits and he laughed and said those are for wussies!   We wakeboarded, surfed, and tubed.  Dustin is a pro on the surfboard and it was fun to watch him.  I tried it for the first time once last summer, but this time I actually let go of the rope and stayed up for a while!  The next day we were sore (from our intense tubing!) and sunburned but it was worth it!

We had plans to go out to dinner with our Vivint friends Emily & Taylor but we got back late from boating and we didn't think to bring clothes down to Sandy to change into after.  So we just went home and showered, and then we went and got sushi!  We LOVE sushi.  And we discovered that there's this little charming sushi restaurant two blocks away from where we live! It's called Pagoda and we'll definitely be going back again.

Sunday we went to the Brigham City temple dedication, and then went over to the Harper's for dinner!  We had yummy tacos and I brought a gooey chocolate birthday cake.  We also played Cataan.  Their family loves that game and I love it now too!  Everyone gets really into it haha.

Dustin's big birthday present was an Xbox 360.  He's been wanting one forever and he met his goal for it this summer so it was well-deserved.  He's really sweet though, and will play for a little bit at night and then watch whatever show I want to with me.  He got this cool game called Portal 2 though, and I actually like watching him play it.  :)

Such a fun weekend!  Happy Birthday Dustin!

product review: clinique lid smoothie

for my birthday, my mom took me shopping for makeup at nordstrom!  i got a few lovely mac products and then we went over to the clinique counter and she introduced me to the clinique lid smoothie.  i am obsessed!

it's eye shadow that glides on (similar to lip gloss), it's creamy, shimmery and crease-resistant and lasts 8 hours.  the best part is putting it on - the metal applicator tip feels really cool on your eyelid.  you can use it alone, or layer other colors over it.

the collection comes in 12 shades:  salt and pepper, lick-orice, currant affair, impromt-blue, bit o'honey, cashew later, sassy-fras, ginger-ly, cute-cumber, pinkgo bilboa, seventh heather, and born freesia.  my favorite is sassy-fras, but i also have the seventh heather and love that one too.

back to reality

well we made the looong drive from texas and then jumped back into our normal lives in utah.  dustin is back in school at the university of utah, and i'm back to working at the harp store, teaching, and playing at the grand america.  this was the longest time period i had ever gone without playing the harp so the first time back at the grand left me with a few blisters!  luckily there weren't a lot of people in there so i didn't have to play super loud.

it feels good to be back in utah, back to being busy, back to a normal routine. don't get me wrong, i loved my free time this summer, but i was really excited to go back to work, and likewise - dustin was excited to be done with work.

some things we've done since we've been back include:  my birthday celebrations, a hike, drive-in movie, 5k race, u of u football game, dinner with my best friends, and a few wedding receptions.

also - we moved into a new apartment and so far we are loving it!  it's a two bedroom and it has a hallway!! yes, we were excited about the hallway haha.  it's a major upgrade from our apartment last year.  we've been busy organizing, building ikea furniture (dustin), and decorating.  i'll post pictures soon. :)  it's in a charming neighborhood, we love the ward so far, and we live right next door to a gelato shop.  we're going to have to control ourselves from going every night!

our reality is looking pretty good.