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.

san antonio again

yesterday emily and i drove another wife to the airport in san antonio.  it's about a two hour drive from corpus.  emily had never been there so after dropping off dasily, we went to the alamo and riverwalk!

i'm always slightly under-whelmed by the alamo.  i guess i just had imagined it bigger and more grandiose in my head.  or something.  what i took from it this time was that the alamo led to the independence of texas, which led to the mexican war, which led to the united states picking up texas, utah, and a few other states.  only a year later after that was when the pioneers arrived in utah.  pretty crazy huh?  oh and i didn't get a picture (no photography allowed! some man yelled at us for snapping pics with our phones.) but there was a locket on display that davy crockett had given to his gf with a lock of his hair inside! ew! i'm glad we have other ways of showing our affections nowadays.

fearless squirrel we saw by the alamo

alamo mosaic

on the riverwalk! so pretty.

we split a yummmy caramel apple. yum.

our souvenirs

davy crockett style.  we rocked the coon hats. 

when trevor met dustin

my handsome husband finally met my brother!  last week trevor came to corpus christi and got to spend a few days with us.  dustin and trevor got along smashingly well (as i knew they would!).  they are similar in so many ways and it was lots of fun getting to see them interact finally!  they are going to be great friends. :) i haven't met dustin's brother stephen yet, but he gets home from his mission the end of september, so i'm looking forward to finally meeting him.

trevor was starving when he got off the plane, so i took him to whataburger of course.  

the moment they met! (haha that sounds like a line from a love story)

the whole office went to rudy's bbq after winning an incentive.

emily, trevor, and i went to the uss lexington museum on the bay!  such a cool museum!  definitely recommend it if you're ever in corpus.

last summer...

today i stumbled upon these gems from last summer which i totally had forgotten about.  i was visiting dustin in oklahoma city and his friend took a few pictures of us for fun.

two weeks!

i just got back from a long trip to utah/nyc.  two weeks may sound like nothing but i was sooo ready to come back home to dustin!  the longest we had ever been apart before this was one night.  i may have broken down and cried a few (several) times, and i even came back a day earlier than originally planned (thank you mom for being a flight attendant and getting me flights!); nonetheless it was great catching up with friends and family (especially trevor who just came back from his mission in malaysia!!) and i got to spend some time in nyc on a work trip in the middle of it.  here's the photo recap of my two weeks away:

my fam's new kitten "bubba"

my fam's old cat "tigger"

making dinner at the hunt fam reunion at panguitch lake.  we all stayed in these adorable little cabins! shayna was making smashed peas.  i think it's a british thing? 

my "little" brothers!

first time seeing him after two years! he still hasn't met the husb yet haha. but i know they're going to get along great.

panguitch lake sunset

trevor's belated birthday cake. 21.

the whole family!  minus dustin :(

my two cute cousins at trev's homecoming

nice malaysia tie, trev.  i remember the day he passed me in height.

on a jet plane, heading for nyc!  i work for a company that sells harps, harp music, harp everything, and we were the presenting sponsor of the american harp society national convention in ny.  i love my job!

9/11 memorial

the "survivor tree" - the only tree that survived 9/11

evita was playing in the theater in our hotel! ricky martin was one of the lead roles "che" and he was amazing.  it was cool seeing this play, since last year i visited buenos aires and even saw evita's grave.

crumbs bake shop!  so many delicious cupcakes to choose from!  the worst part is they list the number of calories each cupcake has right on the card.

yum coconut vanilla

practically perfect.  i loved mary poppins.

after the opening concert.  happy 50th anniversary to the ahs!

paraguayan harpists play like it ain't no thang.  edmar was an incredible musician and performer. 

the front of our booth.  impressive, eh?

where i was working, selling music, strings, etc.

park stickney - jazz harpist + jazz trio

view from my hotel room - the mariott marquis in times square

john's pizza.  when dustin and i go back to the city, i'm taking him here!

times square

the banana pudding was DIVINE.

cool restaurant. yummy salads.

fourth of july!  the flag cake i made.

my dad and i at the sandy city 4th of july parade.  shayna & trevor were a part of our stake's float!  shayna was one of the girls dancing with the fruit on their heads.  :)

twilight concert series at pioneer park!  beach house was playing.

spotted: jef with one f! one of the two guys left on the bachelorette and he's from salt lake.  

finale = next monday.

beyond happy to be back with this cutie. xoxo.