Vacation Day 6- Fun adventures

You know it's time to cut your hair when:

a-You slammed the car door on your hair, not once, not twice, but three times in the same day. Yes I know that takes talent :)
b-You can't get a comb/brush/your fingers through your hair to make it look decent for the day.
c- No amount of conditioner helps either.
d-You remember the last time it was cut...that was a year ago.
e-All of the above :)

So yes I got my hair cut today. I loved it long, but that came at a price...seriously the car door was quite obnoxious. Now it is a bit shorter and layered and I love it.

I also got out in the garden today. I went to my parents' house and swiped two of their pots and brought them home. Then I went back later with left over plants. I planted some flowers around my Satsuma tree that Peter and I planted a couple weeks ago. While watering the tree (which at the moment is just a baby tree) the ground started to move. I took my hose away and up popped two little heads. They were two baby bunnies and apparently I was soaking their burrow which was underneath my tree. Both bunnies stared at me a little bit and then one took off running. The second one took its time to dry off and then hopped over to the fence and stayed there for awhile. We went inside and came out later and it was gone. They were cute, but I hope they don't ruin my satsuma tree. (Click on the picture, the bunny is hiding in the corner of the wooden fence in the shadow.)

This was too good to pass up. After finding our rose in full bloom when we returned, we also noticed a couple more buds. Then we went to my parents' house. The roses in front of the house are ready to bloom. Check out all the buds on this plant. There are at least 20. Spring is near :)

Vacation Days 3-5: Big Bear-Skiing Adventure

We're back! We survived skiing, all limbs are still intact...totally sore, but they're still there. Our adventure began Wednesday as we headed up the mountain to go skiing. We got to a point and then everyone had to stop and put chains on. Peter thought it was going to be a manly job so he was eager to attempt it. Little did he know, these were not the same kind that he has had previous experience with. So here he is draping the chains over the tire...like the instructions say.
I wandered around and there were people there with jackets and such, they were the chains crew people. They helped people get the chains on their cars. So one comes over and asks if we need help. I said yes. They looked at the chains and said they looked a little small for the tires. They then proceeded to tell us that since we had 4 wheel drive we could go without chains. They also claimed that all tires are snow tires too...I wasn't buying that one, but they said we could go with 4 wheel drive, so we did.

It took us awhile to get up the mountain. Everyone was wearing chains or driving 4 wheel drive cars. We saw a snow plow a couple of times as well. Once we got to the top we found our motel...well after we drove past it, we did eventually turn around and find it. We stopped by IHOP for dinner. There was one other guest there and once he left we were the only ones there. The place was empty!!! When we got back in the car it was 19 degrees outside....brrrrr! We went to the motel and went to sleep.

Thursday morning we headed to Bear Mountain. We signed up for skiing lessons. Peter had never skied before so these were essential for him. I have gone 6 or 7 times each with 2-3 days each time. Though I haven't been on the slopes for two years so I was all up for lessons as well. Well we were late to the group lessons so we either had to wait until 12:45 for the next lesson, or we could pay more and get a 1 hour private lesson. We chose that option. So Gaila was our instructor. She mainly worked with Peter, which was fine with me, but I got some pointers too. Here's Peter getting some instruction. I think they were playing "follow the leader." Peter is in the purple jacket with the orange beenie.

After our one hour private lesson we went inside to get a drink. As I was keeper of the camera (less likely to fall and squish camera) this was one of the first shots of me.After this we headed back out for our 12:45 group lesson. We were taken up the ski lift and had to ski one at a time down to where there were three instructors waiting to split us into groups. I had the choice to go with three other ladies or go by myself with my own private instructor for one hour instead of two. I chose the one hour option and really got a lot out of it. My instructor said they're not supposed to take students on chair lift #6, so I was thrilled to give it a try when he asked if I wanted to go on it. It went much higher into the mountain and had some fun hills. I had a blast coming down and learning different ways to keep my skis parallel and turn without making the wedge. It really was fun. After my lesson was over, I went on a few more lifts and then met Peter when his lesson was done. We got some more to drink and then headed out to have some fun on our own. We went up lift #7 a few times-this was what Peter was comfortable with. Here's some fun shots we took of each other.

Here's the view from one of the lifts

At one point I handed over the camera to Peter. He rode up lift #7 and I went up #6. Peter waited at the top of his and as I came down, my route eventually met up with his. So here's some fun shots.

Here I come!

When we left Thursday we were exhausted and very sore. I think we gave our calves a major workout. We had no problem going to sleep that night.

This morning we got up, checked out and headed into town to visit some shops before we headed home. We stopped at Grizzly Bear Belly Deli for breakfast/lunch.

We wandered around a couple of stores and then headed home.

We saw a lot of bears this trip...I loved it!

Views from the car on our way down the mountain.

We had a great time visiting the snow. Though we are thrilled to be back home. Look what was awaiting us when we got back to sunny San Diego.

Our rose bloomed!

Vacation Day 2-The preparation

So Tuesday was another fun day. We ran errands in preparation for days 3-5. We decided that yes we are going to go to Big Bear and go skiing. Except Peter didn't have any snow clothes. Now how does one manage to live in Utah for four years and not have any snow gear? He was shocked to see how much gear I have and I've never lived any place that got snow. So we headed over to my parents' house and borrowed everything under the sun to have fun in the snow. We're even taking my dad's 4 wheel car with chains...though we figure the roads will be plowed, it's just in case.

We're driving up this afternoon so we get there before dark. We'll stroll around town awhile, spend the night and head up to ski school in the morning. Peter has never gone skiing before, and since I don't want to ski alone, we'll both be in ski school. Which means our lift ticket will only be for the beginner lifts, but that's okay. That just means that I'll fall less often.

A funny: I tried on my ski bib that I bought when I was 12 (first experience with skiing), and it still fit. I had to let the shoulder straps out a few inches, but other than that it still fits.

So the adventure begins today and we'll be back sometime on Friday...unless we have so much fun that we stay another day....by Saturday I should put up another post...with lots of pictures. I mean really Peter will be wearing a blue ski bib, a purple/blue jacket, an orange beenie, and snow goggles...That picture alone will be worth a few laughs :)

Vacation Day 1-The Aquarium

Got Sunscreen?

Peter and I have this week off of work. We hope to head up to Big Bear soon and go skiing...perhaps that will be a future post. Today's post is for yesterday. Yesterday Peter and I thought it would be fun to go to the Legoland Aquarium. While looking at the map, Peter realizes the aquarium is totally geared towards children and then decides we can't go without kids. How silly we would look if we asked for two adult tickets and no children tickets. Well yeah, so he called up Chris and Mary and asked if they wanted to go with us. Chris was busy typing papers and Mary was painting the girls' room, so they couldn't go. Peter has now decided that we'll go another day. Mind you it is raining like crazy so we can't do anything outside...the aquarium still sounded good. So we called up Chris and Mary again and asked if they wanted us to take the two older girls with us? They liked that idea and we headed over to pick up the girls (Camille-5, Ellie-3). Mary suggests we take her van since it is pouring outside and the carseats are already in there. So we do. Peter figures out how to move the seat back and Camille exclaims, "You have monkey arms like my daddy." Yup I guess it runs in the family. And then we're off....the rain comes down harder and we're trying to figure out how to get the windshield wipers to go faster. Peter figures it out, and realizes there is a wiper in the back window too that we had been playing with. The ride there we got stuck in traffic, looked out at a lake with birds in it and answered whatever questions Camille threw at us. Ellie was sound asleep before we even got to the freeway.
We arrive at Legoland...yes it is still pouring out. We park the car, Peter carries Ellie and we huddle under two small umbrellas while the rain continues to pour and the wind continues to blow. The back of my pants were quite wet when we got there. We went in to the first area and watched a short clip, then played on a slide. The girls got a little questionaire to fill out. There were bubbles that you could go inside and look at the fishies swimming around. The girls loved these. It looks like one fish is giving Camille a kiss on the cheek. There was a tide pool area, but nobody wanted to put their hands in the water. So I picked up a starfish and they thought that was okay, but they still didn't want to touch it. They had a sandcastle built out of legos that Ellie enjoyed playing with.
There was an Atlantis area too. It was the biggest tank of them all-two stories. You could see the fish from all sorts of angles and levels. This was near the top of the tank. That big fish kept swimming around. Every two minutes he would be back in front of that window.The girls loved pointing out all the lego characters inside the aquarium. Inside the Atlantis area Camille said, "Look there's Ariel's daddy!" It was cute. We had a fun adventure today.

Happy Valentine's Day

I attended a seminar Friday night and all day today and will go again tomorrow morning. Today when I got home, we can say I was just a little slow to notice something my hubby bought for me.

Get this I walk in the door, give hubby a hug and kiss. Notice that he has cleaned the house up a little. Notice an envelope on the table. "Is that a valentine from Rebecca?" Pick it up and see, yup it is...Thanks Rebecca. Put valentine back down on table. Run upstairs and put away jacket. Come back downstairs hug hubby again and notice that he's been to Costco. There's bread on the counter. While hugging hubby, hubby says, did you notice what I got you? I immediately turn back to the table and there were light pink roses in a vase. I swear some ninja came and put the flowers there while I was upstairs, but hubby insists they were sitting there when I came in. They were right there as I noticed the valentine on the table not more than a few inches from the vase. Yes I was slow today! I'm keeping to the ninja theory too.

One Lucky Girl

I've recently discovered that my hubby had some interesting dating rules while in college. Lucky for me I seem to be rule exempt. For example Peter had a three strike rule. Basically if the girl said no three times in a row, he got the hint. Me on the other hand, I had unlimited strikes. Peter called me up and asked me out on a group adventure, I said no. Shortly thereafter Rebecca called and invited me to the same activity and wouldn't take no for an answer. I show up and then must explain to Peter that Rebecca convinced me to go.

On November 4, 2004 Peter emailed his best friend Greg who just happened to be living at the Bishop of the single's ward house asking for my phone number. And that's how it all started. "I'm thinking that whatever I end up doing this weekend would be more fun with her along (hopefully not as a date, because I have no idea on what to do). Maybe just get a group together that wants to hit the theaters or something." Little did he know, that Rebecca would have an easier time getting me to go to activities than he would.

A few of the fun get together activities "clearly NOT dates" and a few that WERE clearly dates
*Sea World-He drove I sat front seat. His sister and two others crammed in the backseat. He was bummed that he never sat by me on any of the rides. Though we did share a funnel cake.

*The Santee Drive-in: Either in the bed of someone's truck or in chairs we always managed to share the blanket. This was quite the fun event, so it happened often.

*Game Nights A Plenty

*Movie Nights A Plenty

*Any ward activity

* Any excuse to go to Disneyland-especially if a friend had never been before.

So the story between us is kind of long...we met in 2004. At some point I knew he liked me but I didn't like him the same way. So I went to activities but also turned him down when he invited me several times. His favorite excuse that I used quite often was that I had to do laundry or clean...somehow the three strikes rule didn't include me.

Sometime in 2005 he started dating this other girl, and boy I did not like it. I wasn't fond of her at all! This lasted a few weeks, yes it was a few weeks of pure horror for me as the girl enjoyed telling my friend all about it while I was there. Yes I was JEALOUS..but why I didn't like him that much...or did I? Lucky for me and him, that relationship ended quickly.

It took awhile, but Peter decided to give me another shot...after all I seemed a little more interested. I turned him down less often...of course I still said no a lot, but somehow it was less than before. I was such a terrible flirt.

A few funny/slightly embarrassing/important moments:

July 2006 we went on a YSA camp out. I found him irresistible and a bit strange. "AAAAAH A MONKEY!....That's not nature, that's stinking wildlife." After the monkey part he had everyone's attention over at his tent to check out the monkey. He had found a large green spider on his pillow. While he and Greg tried to kill it, which was hard to do because it moved quickly, he came up with the wildlife comment. Peter really hates spiders! The next day we went to my house to go swimming. Peter, Greg, Elizabeth and Rebecca tackled a giant turtle. In most cases the turtle won...until he popped. I do have pictures, but Peter won't let me post them :)

November 2006 I help Peter go furniture shopping for his newly purchased condo. Funny story: Imagine you the female helping a male friend buy a mattress...are you picturing this? Now picture the salesperson asking me to try the mattresses too to make sure I like them. Now see my face turning bright red as I come up with a quick response, "I'm just his friend helping him shop for stuff." Gosh I felt stupid after that...Duh. Well he picked out a good mattress :) We also bought a couch, he went with my favorite....good boy :) We went out to dinner that night too. Basically after that I was with him nearly every weekend. Our technical first date happened the first weekend in December.

*The first kiss...well sort of: Peter doesn't like me telling this one, but its funny, so I have to share...and well most people already know. So sometime in December it happened. We watched a movie with friends...then they left and it was just us. We sat and talked. At some point he leaned over and aimed for a kiss. Unfortunately I didn't see it coming and totally moved at the same time. He missed. He got the side of my face...sort of. I was so embarrassed I didn't know what to do. I promptly told him it was time for me to go home. His thought, "I just messed that one up." My thought as I was driving home, "I got up and left...stupid, stupid, stupid." The next day I called him up and we hung out. That night I decided it was my turn and I laid one on him. He enjoyed it. His thought, "Sweet she likes me too...score!"

*February 2007 at a fireside I got there early and saved Peter a seat up front. He came in during the opening song, went two rows in front of me and started climbing over people. As he was nearly sitting down he realized the girl he thought was me, wasn't me. Our friend Rebecca was leading the music and she saw it all happen. The look on my face was bewilderment. Peter turned bright red and everyone within the five rows behind me knew what had happened too. I quickly moved back a row to sit with friends and Peter was so embarrassed he couldn't listen to the speaker.

*Peter loved going to the Midway with Rebecca, Cheri and I.

*We also went on fun outings whenever we could. I hadn't been to the Wild Animal Park in a long time, so we went there. We had fun feeding the birds as this was a first for me. At one point I had about three or four birds on my head. One even pooped while standing on my head. Did you know that these types of birds have flying poop? Shockingly enough I didn't get any poop on my head...it hit the arm of my sweater though, which was easy enough to take off and wash.
Not bad for taking the picture ourselves huh?

*March 2007 Ed moved in to Peter's place. This was great for Peter to have help with the bills...or to save for something sparkly...like a special ring or something. Ed is a good luck charm: He lived with Greg and Dan before, both of them got married so Ed had to move out. He moves in with Peter and well we all know how that ended.

*April 2007 Peter proposes. Ed had just gotten his stuff moved in and now didn't bother taking stuff out of the boxes...he went to church that Sunday and said he had to find a new place to live. I walked in and everyone knew what had happened.

Now I knew the proposal was coming. We had actually talked about it ahead of time and I had gone out with my friend Kira while she was visiting and my mom. We went to one place and I had picked out three rings that I liked. Though I had my heart set on one in particular. The next day Peter headed out with Kira to the same store and found the same salesperson that had helped me. The guy places all three rings on the counter and then Kira says, "Which one does Mandy like the best?" Peter said, "That one is Mandy." Kira, "Good boy." So Peter buys the setting there and gets the stone at another place and is driving all over San Diego trying to get everything right. Rebecca who was getting ready to go out of town, called Peter up and he told her the plan. She offered to help and so she was sent to go find a Build A Bear store. She found a store and built the bear while on the phone with Peter. Making sure she built it to his specifications. They met over at Heidi's where Rebecca was staying, there Peter showed Heidi and Rebecca the ring and picked up the bear. Then he headed home as Rebecca ran to catch a flight.

*The proposal: April 14, 2007...Now let me tell you this totally surprised me, I had no idea he would be able to get it all done in one day. Mind you it was all totally nerve wracking to me because several of my friends and my mom were in on the secrets as they constantly got phone calls and told me to leave the room. Yeah I was a nut case that day. So I went to Peter's place for dinner. He had picked up Greek food. We ate and then sat down for a movie...We watched Toy Story. At the end of the movie Peter told me to grab the blanket off of the other couch. I was confused...why would he want a blanket, it wasn't cold. So I grab the blanket and lo and behold the teddy bear was sitting under it. As I am checking out the bear he got down on one knee and proposed. Of course we all know what my response was. He then pulled out a dozen long stem red roses out of the closet. It was such a sweet day!