Red Butte Gardens

Yesterday was so gorgeous out that we decided to visit Red Butte Gardens, to do a little nature hike. I had never been before, so it was like finding a treasure! We had a great time, and I found out how out of shape I was, hiking around the gardens.

Here's Matt riding the moose:

We saw the fishies & the duckies:

Here are some other great shots Matt took:

Dancin'

So Matt & I signed up for a ballroom dance class and last night was our first class...

I have decided that I'm just not that coordinated, and that Matt has A LOT of patience. We learned steps to the Foxxy, and next week I think we learn some swing steps! It's fun, but I wasn't as quick to learn as the rest of the class so I got a little frustrated. Thank goodness Matt loves me and has patience for me :) I think there will definitely be some practice sessions occurring at home. Sorry I don't have pics, but I'm secretly glad I don't, since I'm sure I wasn't looking my loveliest.

Date Night Out

Saturday Matt & I went out for a date night, dinner and a movie, at The Gateway. It was great to spend quality time together. We ate out on the patio at California Pizza Kitchen. It was a little bit chilly, but worth it because there was a guitarist playing in the plaza. He was playing acoustic versions of some popular songs, and he was really good. His buddy joined him later to add some percussion, and take it up a beat. Their card cracked me up the most, where is says "BEN-Cello/other weird stuff"! Matt & I thought it was hilarious, so I had to post a pic of the card so you could see for yourselves.



Then we strolled through some of the shops to kill time before the show started. We enjoyed the movie "What Happens in Vegas" as it has some pretty funny moments. I think Matt would've been happier to see the new Indiana Jones movie, but I wasn't in the mood to see it....and since I dragged my butt out of bed last weekend to go to the race with him, it was my choice :)

Weather Rant

Start Rant
What is with this weather lately? I, personally, dislike the heat, but could it just make up it's mind? Monday it was 90-ish°, Tuesday 90-ish° with ferocious winds (at least at our place) that knocked out our power for several hours. Wednesday I wake up and it's down to 61° and starts raining later that day, Thursday 53° and rainy. I want summer! Purely for the fact that it was such a long, cold wet winter, that we could use the pick me up! Although, next month I'm sure to be whining about the 100° heat :) I have a love-mostly hate realtionship with Utah weather...
End Rant

Memorial Day Weekend is coming up, and we have no plans yet again. The grocery industry doesn't really believe in giving holidays off, so Matt is working; but I don't blame them as holidays at a grocery store are very busy. I will probably sit at home, maybe do some cleaning (ha!), go shopping for the sales, and make the rounds to see family.

Tuesday was great though! Shoe parties are my new favorite thing thanks to a co-worker, and a shoe party on clearance is even better! They had a clearance sale I went to and I was in Shoe Heaven :) I got 3 pairs for about $70, when one of them was normally that price!

Busy Weekend

Sunday

We drove out to Tooele to watch the Utah Grand Prix, American Le Mans Series race. It was a blast! Definitely something I would enjoy doing again, although it was about 90° out, and got a little bit of a burn despite the excessive amounts of sunblock I applied. We arrived early so we could walk through the paddock (garages) to get a close up of the cars in the main race.


This is me with one of the Ferraris



This is the new Audi R10 that Matt was drooling over, and the main reason we had to go! We got to see the driver practicing jumping in! Then the other one was being pulled right passed us!


This is us riding on the people mover, since our stands were wayyyyyy out there :)

We were seated at the end of the straightaway, that heads into turn one, so we got to see a few slide offs. The cars were coming off the straightaway at about 200 mph, slowing to 80-90 mph to round the corner, so we got to see it all! We even had one small crash that caused a full course caution while they picked up pieces the P1 car (prototype) left behind; also one of the prototype cars lost a lense which flew up in the air and remained on the track for the rest of the race!


This was our view


This we got at the end of the race as we were leaving, and the cars were leaving the course, back to the pits. We were only about 6 feet away!!!


Saturday

Saturday we woke up early and took Bu (my Subaru) in for some work I've been putting off getting done on it. It was a new mechanic, referred to me by a friend, and he was really quick & inexpensive! I would definitely recommend his work to anyone else.

In the afternoon we met with a DJ that we ended up booking! Yay one more thing crossed off the wedding to-do list! We also booked a violinist for the ceremony, who happens to be Heidi's (my cousin) sister in-law. I'm so excited to have both these people perform at our wedding.

Then we attended a family BBQ at the home of Alene & Tyler Root. I had ribs for the first time in my life, and think I will try them again. I have this weird thing about eating off the bone, so I had never had them before :)

Clarification

I realized after yesterday's post, some may assume that either myself or both of us are baby hungry......so I should clarify something that several people have asked over the last month or so.

It seems that after the initial excitement of the engagement wore off, and the "Have you set a date?" question got boring, the next question on everybody's mind has been "Are you guys going to have a baby right away? or "How soon are going to have kids?".

While I'm glad everyone is excited for us to build a family, we also want to build a future for said family. So, to give an official statement and hopefully not have to answer that same question multiple times, or for those who may want to know, but have yet to ask.....

We do want children, we're not sure if we want 2 or 3. We would love to have our own home, and be as debt free as possible before bringing another being into this world. So we've decided that a year after the wedding we will start thinking about it, not trying but surveying our current situation at that time, then deciding if we are ready. Don't get me wrong, we want kids now, but logically, realistically and financially it's just not a good move for us, or for the child :)

Okay, I think that was enough clarification on the subject for now.

New Niece

This is my new niece Dakota! Isn't she cute? She's my first and only, but not for Matt as he already has several on his side. I wish I could see her more often, but her mommy and daddy live far away from us. Okay, so it's an hour and a half drive, but that's still far! She is now 2 months old, as of yesterday. Matt's cousin also had a baby at the end of December (a boy!) so we get to spend time with him also. "Nephew" Skye is now almost 5 months old, and he gets bigger every time we see him. We also have another niece on the way! Matt's sister is having a girl and she is due at the end of July. Needless to say I get my baby time fix pretty often....

Matt & I keep busy planning our upcoming September 13th wedding; if someone had really explained how infuriatingly annoying the details would be, I think we would have gone to city hall and just done it! Alas, the planning is in motion, and time and money are invested, so onward we go! Besides, we don't really want to miss out on having a gigantic party with all of our family and friends :)