Fathers Day & Ryan's Birthday Bash!

Well we went to Las Vegas for Father's Day weekend and also to celebrate my studly hubby's 25th birthday! It was an amazing weekend. We stayed at the Las Vegas Hotel. It is the hotel that Elvis performed at when he was finishing up his career. It was really fun and nice to be just off the strip and it was a great time! We had a bunch of fun hanging at the pool during the 110 degree days and then going out at night and hanging out on the strip. Took a bunch of pics that I will caption down below but in summary, here is what we did:

We went to the pool and got tan and dark.

We ate at Benihana and had an amazing meal! It is always fun to go to Benihana and we were seated with a fun couple from Oklahoma. They had just gotten married a couple hours before! They eloped and got married and they were heading back to the Army base in Oklahoma where they are both stationed the next morning! They were so fun to talk to and the husband had some great insight and stories from his time in the Middle East serving our country. We were really happy to get to meet them and wish them best in their newly married life!

We saw a terrible show... We saw the Cris Angel show at Luxor since they advertise it as a Cirque du Soleil show... It isn't. Just FYI. Basically it's a crappy magic show complete with PowerPoint slides of Cris Angel's life and you get to hear him say the F word a bunch of times and have them make dirty and inappropriate jokes even though it's advertised as a 'great show for the whole family!'... FALSEHOOD. Don't go. Spend your money on something better. I think they call it a Cirque show because someone does a cartwheel once. Okay, well enough on that. Learned a lesson there.

We also went to my favorite restaurant in Las Vegas. It's called Marrakesh and it's a beautiful Morraccan restaurant. We all enjoyed an amazing meal and the setting and decor and dancing was awesome. Totally recommend it! It's sooo good!

Final moment of awesome, we went to the Cosmopolitan in the new City Center complex and enjoyed some wonderful 1920's music and live band while we relaxed and sipped some soda while everyone around us got drunk. It was such a fun night!

All in all, we headed back to Provo on Monday and we were sad to leave. It was so fun and we loved all being together to celebrate Ryan and Scott. The only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been to see my own dad that day, but sadly, distance can prove to be too much sometimes. But Dad, you rock!

Yes we made it down to Vegas on a half tank of gas... I love my car

Driving through the gorge

Benihana

Marrakesh! Best restaurant ever!

Bellagio conservatory! These were giant bees and flowers hanging from the ceiling! It was beautiful!

Cranes made of flowers in the Bellagio... So pretty!

Frog made of flowers and moss. I seriously love the Bellagio

Birthday picture taken of us by the lovely staff at Benihana

Eiffel Tower... Definitely not nearly as pretty as the real one... But it will do

More from the Bellagio

A street walker.... He is the random man in the torn up jean skirt and odd assortment of clothing. He was dancing.. It was hilarious.

Bellagio

Painting recreated from flowers. It was so pretty!

More of the Bellagio! 

Hogle Zoo!!

Sorry this took so long to post but... A few weekends ago we went to the zoo with our friends Dan and Tia! We headed up to Salt Lake and had lunch at Costa Vida beforehand and embarked on our exciting journey through the animal kingdom!
Some of the highlights of our trip were the elephants, tigers, gorillas, and giraffes! We got to see a zookeeper show of the elephants and got to learn some more about these awesome creatures! The craziest fact was that elephants are pregnant for 21 months. I would die. I'm glad I am not an elephant.
I wore my zebra shirt in the hopes that I would see some lions and that they would think I was a zebra. I just wanted to interact with them... But sad day, there are no lions...Another day...
The tigers were beautiful! To see these big cats lounging in the sun and soaking up some warmth was so cute and thy totally demand your respect. All I could think of was the tiger in 'We Bought a Zoo.' I wanted to hear them chuff but sadly I was far too chicken to wake them from their beauty sleep.
The giraffes were so pretty so see and interact with. The monkeys were insanely entertaining and they made us laugh and it made me so excited to go to Peru and see them in nature. I can't wait! Regardless, I totally recommend going to the zoo here in Salt Lake. We had a lot of fun and it is a great day trip! Seriously I totally suggest going to the Hogel Zoo! It is a cheap and fun day (only like $12 a person for admission) and it is so fun and there are a ton of fun animals and animal presentations! Here are some pics from the day. Sorry the quality isn't the best... These are iPhone pictures but they will do! Enjoy! :) Oh and yes I changed my hair and now am the proud owner of bangs. I love them!

By small and simple means...

Yesterday was one of the greatest and humbling experience of my life. Lately I have been the biggest brat in the world... though my husband is too nice to publicly admit it. But I have been. 

I have been grumpy about my job, about not going to the Middle East this summer, about not going to Africa this summer, about not having a baby to post cute pictures of. But there you have it, sometimes life doesn't go as planned. When, in fact, life during those times is usually one million times better than you are willing to admit. 

Well yesterday I got one of those slaps in the face... Yesterday, I was sitting at work (admittedly the biggest thorn in my side) and I was irritated and upset about not being in Jordan, about telling Ryan that he couldn't go on a trip to the Middle East this summer because of security concerns, and being equally pissy about 'not having anything to look forward to.' Little did I know that I was retarded and selfish and bratty. So, as I was sitting at work, I decided to look online for some sort of fun vacation to take Ryan on so that I wouldn't feel as bad about him (or us) not going to Jordan with Zaytoon this summer. And as I was looking online, a miracle happened. I saw a link for flights from LAX to Lima, Peru for $700... I thought, 'hmm expensive but Ryan could go back and visit his converts and have a great time', and when I clicked on the link, the price went from $700 to $232 R/T from LAX to Lima. I was in shock. Seriously I couldn't (and still can't) believe what I was seeing. It was impossible. No flights cost that little. We can't even fly to California for that cheap! 

Well I immediately called Ryan and told him what I was seeing. And, fifteen minutes later, we had bought tickets for an amazing adventure to Peru. And as I sat there afterwards waiting the last few minutes before I left work to go pick up Ryan, I just wanted to cry. 

I wanted to cry because of the total love that I felt in that moment in time from my Heavenly Father and from my husband. For the fact that even though I have been rude and ungrateful constantly complaining about my lack of international travel was rewarded by an willing deity who really does listen to everything I say, even my complaints. And he gives to us those things that I definitely don't deserve.

I realized finally that this summer will actually be one of the best in my life. In the month of June alone we have already enjoyed Seven Peaks, picnics, canyon outings, and family dinners. We still have a Vegas weekend to come in a couple weekends. And I have a huge conference to prepare for at work where we will have an amazing week at Park City. But in the end, I realized that what really matters is that I get to spend my whole summer with my best friend, Ryan. Nothing is more important than that. I adore my husband and my life. If we always keep waiting for life to start, we forget that it already has and the good parts are passing us by. 

Needless to say, I have an amazing life. I have the best husband in the world who puts up with my cantankerous attitude. And I have the unique opportunity to have an insatiable need to travel and a husband to match. 

So, for those of you who, like me, sometimes forget that you live an amazing life, take the time right now to say a quick thank you to everything and everyone who has made your life that way. And always show thanks for what you have. And, of course, take advantage of the opportunities that come to you! Don't be afraid of a challenge! 

Life is beautiful

Memorial Day!

Well it was going to be another dismally cold and rainy holiday in P-Town... So we booked it down to the West Coast!
We decided to head down to Orange County for the weekend to enjoy Memorial Weekend. Ryan and I finished work around noon on Friday and we headed home to get everything thrown into Evan's truck to take to California. We picked up Joey (my brother-in-law) and met up with Evan (other brother-in-law) and our friends Dan and Tia when we got to our house. We loaded up all 5 bikes that we were taking along with our luggage and set out on the open road... The drive down was super windy and it was a pain to keep the truck from being blown into passing vehicles and roadside shanties.. But regardless, we made it to Ryan's parents house around 10ish Friday night and spent some time chatting and falling asleep while speaking. I eventually succumbed to my old age and went to bed exhausted only to enjoy the company of my favorite dog in the world, Beyonce. She graciously joined Ryan and I and snuggled with us all night long. Sleeping with a snuggly puppy is the best...

Well Saturday morning we woke up and went to the gym. Tia and I had a blast doing cardio on the 2 treadmills that were working in the place (although they would shut off after every mile... really helpful) and then we went back home where I made everyone a pile of spinach eggs and delicious spicy hashbrowns. Feeding a hungry group of 4 boys and 2 girls requires a whole lot of eggs... But it was delicioso.

Afterwards we got showered and prettied up because we were off to Newport Beach to ride bikes and boat around the harbor! We dropped the boys off about 8 miles from the beach and they all rode in a pack to the beach while we ladies (and Roland) drove to the beach (smarter decision) and found some parking spots (nightmare) and waited for them to arrive from their jaunt. Oh and this is where I mention my half hour ordeal of finding a parking spot that would fit Evan's giant truck WITH a bike rack on the back of it. NIGHTMARE ON BEACH STREET is the title of that half hour of my life. But eventually I found a spot a mile away from everyone else and made them walk to me to gather the 4 million bikes that we now had inhabiting the bed of the truck. I must have looked like a mobile bike rental. It was great. But anyway, we got unloaded, crossed the street without being struck by expensive vehicles and made our way to the boardwalk to eat some sandwiches that we had brought with us. We embarked on our biking journey and rode down the beautiful boardwalk (made of concrete) down to another pier at Newport. It was so fun and the weather was perfect. Nice and breezy but enough sun to keep you warm and give you a slight tan (or if you are the boys, turn you into a partial lobster on your back...)
After bike riding it was time for us to check in for our boating extravaganza at the Balboa Pier. So, we rode back down to the truck and other vehicles, loaded all the bikes into the truck to make it back into a rental business again and hoped that no one would steal anything. Then it was time to find another parking spot for that thing... Luckily enough we found one right by the boat docks and only had to wait for a minute to pull into the smallest spot known to man.
We ordered some pizza at the  pier and took that on the boat and ate away happily as we stared at the mansions on the harbor wondering how on earth these people afford these homes and what illegal businesses they owned to obtain such wealth.... My prevailing theory is that they must buy and sell Eastern Europeans. It's highly logical and quite possibly the only explanation available.

After the boat ride we all went back to the Cole's house and went into the hot tub to soothe the boy's sunburns and then we goofed around inside being lazy until we all went to bed.
Sunday morning we woke up and went to church at 9 with David and Darcy (brother and sister in laws) and sustained David as one of the new counselors in his wards Young Mens Presidency. He stood up very straight when his name was called and we were so proud of him for accepting that calling. After sacrament, we went back to the house and laid out in the sun for about 6 hours. The boys stayed in the shade a lot since they were already very tender and had gone through a huge bottle of aloe. But I soaked up the rays and definitely did not want to be in Provo for the lovely rainy weather they were having.
Everyone came over for Sunday dinner and we ate outside and played ladder golf (i was sorely defeated) and then we all piled into the living room to talk and joke for the next 3 hours until I once again succumbed to old age syndrome and went to bed...
Monday morning was the day we all dreaded as we knew we would have to head back to Utah and so we went to the gym, and then met up with our friends Justin and his lovely girlfriend Ashley for breakfast where we laughed and waited 4 hours for our waitress to arrive... No big deal, we were just starving. But then the happiness had to end and we packed up the truck and once again made that long journey back to Utah. When we were stopped in Vegas to get gas and food, we were so tempted to just get a big room at one of the hotels and call in sick on Tuesday... But our consciences got the better of us and we instead rode the rest of the way home to arrive tired and beaten on our door steps and to know that at 6 am Ryan and I had to be up again to go to work... Joy oh joy...

Provo in Summer = Crazy Time

Well I thought I would update on our summer so far to the 6.5 people who read this blog. :)
Ryan and I are both working full time still up in Riverton and Sandy. Life is pretty nice when you don't have homework after a long day and all you have to do is decide whether or not to be active enough to go to the gym or just lay around and watch a Redbox...
So yes, we are enjoying the working life and have had some fun times already this summer!
As you can see from our last post, we bought bikes and have become the hottest bike-riding hipster-hitters in town and we love it. We have ridden all over kingdom-come and even have gone down to the lake on the trail and also ridden through the canyon! Although the canyon ride we did at night when it was PITCH DARK (though Ryan will not admit that point, claiming that he is basically a bat with night vision... I did not know about that genetic trait when I married him... ) And I could not see a thing and I was worried about falling into the raging river of death and also being side tackled by a mountain lion, but no biggie. We made it down after much grumbling on how slow I was going on my part due to the lack of sight... Regardless, we are in love and have a great time together.. As long as I am going the appropriate speed on a dark canyon path at 10 pm.... :)
We have gone to the lovely BYU duck pond a couple times already to enjoy the splendor of animal life and baby animals that I would love to take home and let live in my bath tub if only my husband and landlord would allow that... Here are some pics from that fun adventure!

And we also got to have the awesome excitement of watching a solar eclipse the other day!! I have always wanted to watch one and I finally got the chance! Utah had an amazing view of this super awesome event and it really hit home to me just how wonderful this world is that we live in... I am always in awe of this Creation and how absolutely perfect it is.
I know this pic doesn't show anything useful but it's proof that I was at least out there...

We have Memorial Weekend coming up soon (AKA 2 days from now) and we are excited to say that we are going down to California to spend the weekend with Ryan's parents. Our friends Dan and Tia are going to come with us and hang out to celebrate their one month anniversary together on the lovely Newport Beach! It should be a blast and we are all very excited since Utah decided to get cold and rainy this week... No bueno..
We have also been brilliant enough to buy the Seven Peaks Summer Pass and are very excited to spend our evenings and weekends at the water park soaking up some sun and enjoying a watering hole that we can swim in. Along with that we have also gone midnight mini golfing with Evan and Travis (yes they had a man date...) and we had a blast tooling around Orem and realizing how ghetto that city can look late at night. No offense to any Orem-ites who read this... I love it there... You have delicious Thai food and Five Guys.
We are moving to a bigger town home in July that we are very excited about! We will finally be able to settle somewhere for a couple years while Ryan does his Master's program... And, inshallah, it will be the tender abode that we bring our baby home to! (No I am not prego... Just planning ahead for the future...)
Ryan turns 25 next month and we are super excited for him to be a quarter century old! :) I got us a zip lining adventure for his bday and we will be using that sometime this summer.
As well as going sailing on the Great Salt Lake! We and a couple friends are going to embark on a wonderful sun soaked day of sailing out on the salty waters of our state. We are so excited to try this this summer!
We have July 4th plans to hang out here in Provo and see Stadium of Fire and Ryan's parents have decided to come up for a quick visit around then as well! So we will have some fun and probably float down the Provo River!
We also will have the chance to see our nephew get baptized this summer! Roland (Ryan's sister's son) is turning 8 in July and we are so excited to go to Cali to spend time with him on that awesome day!
And, of course, Ryan and I are going to see Journey in August with Pat Benetar up in Salt Lake. This will truly be a glorious day and we literally cant wait!
Hopefully my parents will be able to come out at some point this summer! It has been ages since we have seen them and definitely don't want to wait all the way to Christmas to spend time with them!
I promise to post on all these fun events throughout the summer and hopefully you all have as much fun as we do! :)

Bikes!

So, Ryan and I bought bikes... Online... Which means they do not come assembled...
Needless to say Ryan and I have learned our lessons and will NOT be those parents who are trying to assemble a blasted bike for one of our kids on Christmas Eve... So, lesson learned.
Anyway, my bike was delivered the other day and I was, of course, delusionally excited to put it together in about 15 minutes and be out riding within 20. Obviously I was wrong.
I started out by fighting with the box and finally got everything out. Then it was onto deciphering the assembly book. AND of course they had sent me the wrong assembly book. Happy day. Now maybe some of you are able to whip together a road bike in my anticipated amount of time... But I am no connoisseur of road bikes and that means that I am a babbling idiot when it comes to at-home assembly.
So, I waited for Ryan to come home and for him to take a stab at this awful bicycle that I was ready to pack up and ship back to the hole it came from. But I was patient, lazy and frustrated. So I ate a 'healthy Oreo' (yes I bought the kind that say they are healthy) and played Scramble with Friends until the hubs got home from the gym.
He asked me how much I had gotten done. I proudly told him that I had put on the pedals and that was it. Even those pedals took me 25 minutes to screw on. Little did I know that I was doing it wrong...
Anyway, while Ryan was working away on my bike, My dear friend Nate offered to come to the rescue. He came over and he and Ryan were successful in putting it together and I was able to go on a completely undeserved ride (since I really didn't do much)... But I put my feet on those pedals that I worked so hard to put on and I rode like the wind! Well more like a slow breeze through the parking lot next door...
Either way, success was ours and it was so sweet.
Ryan's bike will be coming soon and we will not be defeated in that assembly! So, insha Allah, we will be the new biking gang of Provo before you know it! Watch out Provo! The Coles are taking over the bike lanes!  

I love spring

         So these past few weeks Ryan and I have been able to enjoy the bliss of springtime here in Utah. A couple of weeks ago Ryan picked me up from work and told me how his Mom has told him that they were all going as a family to the beach the following day (Saturday) to rise bikes and enjoy a day together. Well, I automatically decided that we were part of the family too and that we should be there too. So Ryan and I decided that we would go home, pack and head out to surprise his parents that night. Well the drive was going swimmingly and wee only had one hiccup when we came to a dead stop right before Vegas. We were stopped for 2 hours because an SUV rolled and the rescuers were trying to get some survives out of the vehicle to safety. It was a scary accident that made us all very grateful to be alive and that we were safe.
Well we ended up getting to Ryan's parents house at 2 am. We ran the doorbell and surprised Pam and Scott by waking them up to see our pretty faces. Needless to say, we were so happy to be there and we enjoyed going to bed with their dog, Beyonce, and to sleep finally.
Well since we only had one day to enjoy with the family we made the most of it by waking up and heading down to Laguna Beach. Well it turned out to be cold and overcast at the beach. So we quickly had lunch and headed back to Pam and Scott's house where it was sunny and hot. We laid out by the pool and lounged in the sun with family and friends. We played a fun yard game called ladder golf and we swam and soaked up some much needed rays! Here are some pictures from the day! My nephew Roland had fun making silly faces and Ryan had fun floating around the pool with Beyonce.

Sadly then the time came to leave for Utah again. We left early on Sunday morning very fulfilled from our 24 hour trip down to sunny California!
Later on in the week, once we were back in Utah, we got to attend some very special experiences with our friends. Our friend Brenden was set apart as a missionary! He is such an amazing man and Ryan and I were so blessed to have met him over in Jordan and for Ryan to have been able to teach him the mission prep lessons in the Holy Land. So we were so proud to be a part of this experience for him and that Ryan was able to stand in on the blessing. Then the following day was the day we got to take him to the MTC! Ryan had breakfast with him and then I got to join them to go to the MTC. We had lunch and went to the madness that is an MTC dropoff day. We said our tearful goodbyes and I gave him one last handshake before we sent him off for 2 years to serve in Nevada! We are so proud of him and are so excited to hear about his experiences and to see him grow! Excuse my haggard appearance... I am a cry baby and this setting apart was no exception... And yes, this is right before he was set apart... I didn't make him sin.

Lastly, this same week, we were able to attend an amazing and beautiful sealing for our friends Dan and Tia. We adore this couple and are so excited for them to start their new life together as an eternal family. It was I the Salt Lake Temple where we were married and the temple president performed the sealing. He spoke some beautiful words about the importance of marriage and the sealing ordinance. The happy couple was glowing and, of course, I was crying away happily as I saw two of my closest friends be sealed to one another for the rest of time. Couldn't be happier for them! Ryan was one of the groomsmen and he was dashing in his vest! Here are a couple pics from the day!
We enjoyed a beautiful reception later that night at Thanksgiving Point in the gold club house. It was a beautiful homage to a gorgeous couple! Congrats!

All in all it was an amazing little while to be spiritually uplifted an to focus in all the good that is going on in the world today!