Visit from the Smiths

Nicole, Phil and Tori came into town last week for Phil's brother's wedding. I knew they were coming and one night I was trying to decide what to give Tori when she came... So I made her this:
It's an Octopus. I gave it a little personality with the teeth and the mouth (I know that's not how octopuses really are... DUH.)

Tori liked it and he was christened "Oscar" (sorry baby boy Smith, you'll have to find a different name, haha) I suggested Ollie but Tori vetoed it.

Even Phil liked it, lol. Well it was fun seeing them and we can't wait until we're in California and it can become a regular thing!

Pics from Thanksgiving and Christmas

Here are some of the best pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Aubrey on Chase's shoulders while he played the Wii fit, so cute!

Colin playing the Wii with his sweet set-up and Aubrey sitting with him (a rare sight!).

Chase's mom makes AWESOME guacamole and she hadn't even finished before everyone swarmed around and devoured it. From all sides!

This is from Christmas day in Lodi. My dad got all the boys remote control planes and we went to the Lodi High track to test fly them. It was hilarious and my dad wins the award for most ridiculous crashes and Ryan wins for actually hitting a person (not intentional). It was fun.

At Chase's house over Christmas. For some reason everyone thought it was hilarious that I needed 2 boxes of cookies before I settled down to watch a movie... but they were going fast!

Until next year!

Christmas

I always put off blogging because transferring pictures to my computer holds me up. So this time I thought I would post and put the pictures up later.

Fall semester finally ended and with a little bit of drama that got worked out, Chase graduated :) No break for him though, as he started grad school at BYU on Jan 4th. He's getting his masters in civil engineering and so far (4 days) he is enjoying it. The weirdest news is that he has decided to grow a "Grad-stache" over the break that is pretty full now and getting lots of attention. He said that his teachers notice him a lot more and he would shave it when he couldn't take the ridicule any longer. He said one guy told him if HE grew a mustache his wife would divorce him! I said that seemed a little extreme and Chase admitted to me that this guy was kind of weird anyway... But other then that I'm am not aware of any ridicule and he always passes it off as jealousy, so I think the 'stache might be here for awhile.

We headed to Lodi for the first week of break and had a really fun Christmas with my family. I had not celebrated Christmas with my family ON Christmas day for 3 years, so it was fun. Aubrey is at the cutest age where she was excited for Christmas to come and finally understood what was going on. I made her a tutu which ended up being a big hit and she would put on her leotard (from Mom), tutu, and ballet slippers (from Noelle) at least twice a day and leap and twirl around the house for anyone that would watch her. She also got a tiara and matching wand and I taught her how to tuck her wand into her tutu like it was holstered. Her favorite thing was to stuff her wand down the front of her leotard and ask me where it went. Obviously her leotard is skin tight so that was no mystery... Besides her tutu she was obsessed with our "pet" (we brought our pet gecko out to California with us) and would ask to hold her at least 5 times a day, and she was obsessed with my iPhone. Once I was leaving and she asked if she could play it and I said no because it was my phone and I needed it. A few minutes later my mom came running out to the car saying that Aubrey had burst into tears because I wouldn't let her play with my ipod, so I handed it over...
This is a picture Aubrey drew on my phone, which she called "Chase."This is a picture Aubrey took of Zaya. She was pretty handy with the camera!

Chase and Colin had a really fun week and had a great time playing with the RC airplanes my dad gave to all the boys. They also went shopping together at one point and after we left Chase told me it was the most fun he's had at my house. (The whole week... not just the shopping with Colin.) We also got to meet Tamie and Ryan's baby for the first time. She is adorable and it makes me glad to see Ryan so happy with his new family. Seeing my friends and family getting married isn't as surprising to me as seeing them start having kids. I was really excited to give baby Lyra the hair barrettes I made for her but then I met her and her hair is like 1/2" long! Oh well, she'll wear them down the road.

MY favorite present was a cast iron grill pan and panini press which I did not expect at all! I was excited to use it and one night we had two kinds of soup and panini sandwiches that turned out delicious! I have a few bugs to work out, but I'll get the hang of it! Noelle and I also gave my dad the Christmas present we had been working on for 5 years... a toupee made out of our own hair. We had been saving our brush hair for a long time to come up with this masterpiece! We also made an infomercial with Chase's and the Shield's help. It turned out hilarious and got just the reaction we wanted. I'll post the video on here when I get it from Noelle. Chase gave me a new fossil watch and some adorable pearl earrings which I love! I think he cheated though and spent more then $50 which is what we agreed on this Christmas... I got him a small drill and some drill bits, but I think he likes those too. I loved being in Lodi and spending time with my family. I am excited for school to be over and for Chase and I to maybe move there :)

After that first week we headed down to Bakersfield to spend time with Chase's family. We had so much fun and it was way relaxing. I had a lot of fun playing with Tori and the result was that she liked to follow me around. Her favorite activity was coming in the bathroom while I was getting ready and going through my things. She liked to do the things I did which included putting baby powder in my hair (Sorry Nicole, if she does this at home...), putting on makeup, and applying chapstick. Another day we also painted her finger and toenails and I put tiny hearts on her nails and they we so cute! Little did I know that she likes to chew on her nails and by the end of the night she only had polish left on about 3 fingernails... haha. Good thing I used the scented polish so she could chew strawberry and kiwi off her fingers! Tori is so much fun to play with but I can already tell Chase and I are a bad influence on her. Chase taught her this weird throaty noise that she makes and sounds like a dinosaur and Chase and I laughed and laughed at her, but Tori gets in trouble for making it from her mom and dad. Oops!

I got lots of good Christmas presents from everyone including a cute homemade necklace from Nicole, a headband from Ashlee, and nail polish from Alex that I wanted so bad but didn't tell anyone about! How did he know!? I also got an immersion blender from Chase's mom, a new watch from his dad, and a very nice Williams-Sonoma gift card which I feel is the best present of all :)

We also went bowling one day which was so fun except I got the lowest score out of everybody on BOTH games! I guess being good at Wii bowling means NOTHING in the real world. Chase's dad also gave him an RC airplane and they went and flew it a few times. It crashed the second to last day and Chase spent the WHOLE day gluing it back together with this special epoxy stuff... then they went to fly it the last morning and Chase's mom went to watch. I stayed home to pack the car when I got a text saying "Plane crash" and when they came home, his airplane was no more... Chase salvaged the electronics but the airplane itself was beyond repair. So once when he had 3 airplanes he now was down to 1 (after another fatal crash of his home-made one that happened in Lodi) Poor Chase!

New years day we also had a super fun Bunko party with 20 people. It was so fun we decided to make it an annual thing. I had a lucky streak and although I didn't get the prize for most wins, I got the prize for most Bunko's rolled (4!) and I was told it was the biggest prize. I got a gift certificate for a pound of See's chocolate which I am really excited to use. Chase won the prize for the 50-50 record (a Rudy Giuliani bobble-head) and Ashlee won for most wins (2 big chocolate bars). Chase's mom was worried that all her prizes were going to her own family members and that the guests would think the whole thing was rigged, but how can you rig Bunko??

We were sad to leave California but ready to get back to our normal lives. Although out of everyone I asked NO ONE was ready for school to start on the 4th, haha. But that was our fun Christmas and I'll get some pictures up here soon.

Fall Semester

Summer has ended and Chase and I are into our Fall semester. During the two weeks between semesters I went to California to "play mom" while my mom and Noelle went to Europe for about 10 days. I took care of Aubrey, Colin and Zaya and helped things run normal while my mom was gone. I was excited to spend time with Aubrey and I had many craft projects planned weeks in advance :) Here are some picks from making rainbow cupcakes with Aubrey. She loved to decorate them and I taught her how to put the right amount of sprinkles on them.


Lets just say if Aubrey doesn't want to take a picture with you, it's hard to force her. This was the best smile I could get, and it seems a little sarcastic on her part!

While I was in Lodi, Chase went on a pack horse camping trip with our Bishop. Chase's brother, Alex, flew in to go with him. They had fun and I heard a lot of funny stories when we met up in Bakersfield for the second week of our break. We had fun down there and got to see Nicole, Phil and Tori and celebrate Janelle and Phil's birthdays. Chase's mom also gave us tickets to go see Brian Regan in concert as a belated birthday present to Chase. It was awesome.

After 2 weeks of vacation school has started up again. I'm taking lots of classes for my major, including a sewing swimsuits class, advanced cooking, and floral design... so you know, pretty tough classes. Haha. Chase is in his last semester of undergrad and taking a few last GEs and holding strong! He complains sometimes, but he still studies hard and gets good grades.

I still work at the Bean Museum giving live animal shows. It's a fun job and I LOVE it! The coolest part is that all my co-workers are my age, I've never worked anywhere like that before! Chase is still doing research for a professor on campus which will turn into his graduate research, so that's a win-win!

The bottom line is that we don't have much free time, but we want to say congrats to all our friends who have had their babies! Cameron and Mitzi, we need to see Noah immediately! Ryan and Tamie, I'm excited to be an Aunt that spoils her neice! Beth and Mark, I love visiting Spencer and I wish I could come over every day!

California Adventures

Chase and I headed to California about a month ago and had a great time! We went memorial camping in Santa Cruz and we were so glad we could make it again this year. The first morning of the camping trip we went back to this amazing cave we were introduced to the year before.
Dane was our tour guide again and here he is showing off the entrance. Its a glimpse of what was to come.
Here's a glimpse for you to see, it was a really tight fit!
Here's the group that went in the cave. If you look close you can see how dirty we are!

The next stop on our trip was a family reunion on Chase's Dad's side. We headed up to Auburn and hung out for a few days and had a super fun time. Our reunion last summer was so fun, I was really excited for this one and it turned out being great as well.

After the Reunion we headed back to the bay area to spend time with Nicole and Phil and Tori. We were really glad they let us stay at their place.
One day we headed into San Francisco and spent time with our friends Brian and Lauren who had just moved out of our Provo ward. We went to the botanical gardens, the Pier, and Ghirardelli Square.
Here's a good pic of us with some city scape in the background.

After Palo Alto we headed back to Lodi for a few days and attended Colin's 8th grade promotion before finally returning to Utah. How could we be gone for so long you ask? Well Chase took time off from his extremely flexible job (research for a professor) and I didn't need to take time off because I didn't have a job! Neither of us were in school either, so overall it was pretty easy to get away. It makes me wish our lives could be like this forever!

Recent Happenings

Next week Chase and I are going to California for a small vacation. Chase actually isn't going all the way... he's staying in Nevada because he was invited to attend the annual young men's desert camping trip by my dad. Apparently this year they're going all out and getting ATVs for everyone. Chase is really excited and I told him to bring me back some sweet rocks. I'm driving with him and then continuing on to California to hang out with my mom for a few days. My plan is to hopefully potty train Aubrey while I am there. Chase and I agree my mom is a big softie and Aubrey needs some tough love. Not anything too extreme, just refusing to give her a diaper when she has to go. We'll see how it goes though :/

Recently I recived this dog for free from my Religion teacher and because it was impossible for us to keep... :( ... I sent it on to California as a surprise Valentine's present for my mom. Her name is Nutmeg and she was so adorable! Apparently she and Aubrey will play outside for hours and she is much more fun for Aubrey to have around then lazy Taz. Although I'm sure my mom still loves Taz more, Nutmeg seems like a good addition to the family.

This is Chase on the couch eating Triscuits and watching TV. When I saw it I had to take a picture because it was so hilarious. Notice the vacant stare and pile of crumbs on his chest. He is so cute :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's 49th birthday! And in celebration I have written 49 reasons why he is so great! So here goes...
Haha, jk. I don't have 49, but here are a few good reasons anyway.
He is so smart! He always gives me great advice and he knows how to deliver it.
He loves to have fun, and he always makes sure everyone else is enjoying themselves as well.
He loves our family! Everyone has a close relationship with him and we can all talk to him comfortably. AND we can all rough-house with him too! Haha.
He's an amazing cook. Thanks to him I make Chase cook all the breakfasts and do all the BBQing! Every general conference I miss his delicious food :(
So Happy Birthday Dad! the big 4-9. Don't sweat it now, you'll be 63 when Aubrey graduates high school! I love you.

Visit from my family

My family came up to Utah a few weeks ago and it was great to see them! Noelle and I hung out with our family Wednesday for lunch, then Aubrey came back to my apartment with me while my mom, Colin, and Yeong-Hye hiked the Y. It was my mom's first time! Aubrey is getting so old, its crazy. We walked from campus to my apartment (about 4 blocks) and she chattered the whole way and we actually had real conversation. She made me scrounge up every toy in my apartment (about 6) and I had to read a book I gave her 5 times. She may be demanding, but she's so cute! Friday after we all went to the homecoming spectacular we came back to my apartment again and I had to go around to ask my neighbors to borrow some cards so we could play scum, and Aubrey insisted on coming door to door with me :) It was a fun few days and we can't wait to see them over Thanksgiving!

End of Summer

Well now that Chase and I are back at school I wanted to write one last post to wrap up our summer in California. We headed out to Palo Alto to Nicole and Phil's for Tori's 1st birthday. We had a fun BBQ and they made 2 cakes for Chase and Tori because their birthdays are only a day apart. It was awesome for us to hang out with Chase's family for his birthday! (I know that's really what he wanted.)
This was the "exploding cake" his mom made, its chocolate with crushed up candy bars and m&ms on it. So tasty!
Hanging out in Lodi as well. Aubrey is super good at riding the scooter now and every night she wants Chase and I to come out and ride up and down the driveway with her. Sometimes we'd rather not but it's always fun to get out of the house.
For Tamie's birthday Ryan took her jetskiing and Chase, Yeong-Hye and I tagged along. We all had a really fun time out at Hogan and I had to ride the tube behind the ski most of the time! My arms got tired, but it was so fun!
For the second part of Tamie's birthday, Ryan, Tamie, Dani, Kevin, Chase, and I went to California State Fair on a kind of triple date. We had a really fun time messing around and eating fair food (Ryan's favorite part!) and that night we saw the Weird Al concert. We were all skeptical at first but it was free and it ended up being really funny and entertaining! This is Chase and I on our way out of the fair.
The last weekend before we left Emily, Paige, Dani, Chase and I went to Santa Cruz for the day to enjoy the beach before returning to Utah! It was a nice, relaxing day with lunch at a deli, bocce ball, and walking along the Boardwalk. We did ride the Giant Dipper once, it never gets old! The only problem is that we all forgot sunscreen and got grilled up like a bunch of lobsters. Chase was the only smart one who stayed dressed and in the shade, but I don't mind a little extra tan before heading to school ;) This is Chase at the boardwalk, I suppose he's sad he'll be the only one going back to school without a tan.
The day before we left California Chase's mom called us up and said she'd be in Walnut Creek and maybe we could get together for dinner to celebrate her birthday. We headed out there and met Nicole,Phil and Tori and had a fun time, eating and watching her open her presents. She asked everyone to just give her a good book to read, so I gave her "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson, and Chase gave her "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. I hope she enjoys them!Now Chase and I are back in Utah for Fall semester.

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Our Exchange Student

On July 26th we got our Korean exchange student that is going to live with my family for the next 10 months! Her name is Yeong-Hye (Young-Heh) and she is 15 and a sophomore in high school. She arrived on Saturday and started school on Monday and then on Tuesday, my parents left for Hawaii, so I was left here to assimilate her to American culture...!
The week was actually really great and Chase and I both bonded with her really well. One night Colin had a friend over and we all went outside and after a failed badminton attempt (too windy!) we ended up playing an excellent game of croquet in which I got poison and killed everyone! Yeong-Hye actually did really well and Colin only blew his stack a few times. After a few days in high school, we pulled Yeong-Hye out on a pre-arranged absence to transfer her to an intensive English program for two weeks. Hopefully that will be long enough for her to understand her teachers better! Overall she is a joy to have and Aubrey is so enthralled by her that she is Aubrey's new favorite and I get left alone whenever she is around.

Chase's Family Reunion

Last weekend was Chase's family reunion in Avila Beach. It was a lot of fun and good to meet all his extended family again. When you meet them of course they always remember me and say that we met at my wedding, but I met so many people! I told Chase this and he just said "Welcome to my world" and I got no sympathy at all! I guess it just shows me that I should be more sensitive to his situation here in Lodi. We got there Thursday night and went out to dinner with everyone at a restaurant with AMAZING fish tacos. I guess all my worrying was for nothing because as soon as we sat down talking to everyone was totally natural and fun. I love his relatives! Friday everyone went to Morro Bay which was about 45 minutes away from our hotel and went whale watching. We saw a lot of whales and it was cool except it took like 5 hours and on the way back everyone got sick and 3 people barfed!

This is Morro rock and Chase!Alex and Ashlee seeing the whales, I must've just missed a picture of the whales!
And Chase on the open ocean.
That night back in Avila Beach we walked around the local farmers market and bought food for dinner and dessert. We ate on the pier and it was so fun, I want to go to farmer's markets every day!

This is us on the pier, poor Chase got roasted on the whale boat. Who knew that you could get burned on an overcast day??
After the farmers market that night we went down the beach a little ways and had a bonfire and roasted smores. This was the time for everyone to tell stories about Chase's Grandma and just talk and enjoy themselves without worrying about throwing up like we did on the boat! Haha.
Us at the bonfire.
The next day we went to Morro Bay again and went to a restaurant called the Coffee Pot for breakfast and met the owner who is this amazing guy who wrote the book Double Luck about his own life growing up as a Chinese orphan. Then everyone went out on kayaks in the bay for a couple hours. I was paranoid about getting wet but Chase was nice and didn't splash me at all, so it was really fun! Then that night we had a BBQ at our hotel for Grandma's birthday and everyone gave her presents. Sunday was the last day and we checked out of our hotel room and went to Grandma's house in San Luis Obispo for a delicious brunch and then to church in her ward. It was so small we basically doubled it with the 15 or so people that came to church with her! Then we drove home in time to celebrate my mom's birthday with dinner. The weekend ended up being tons of fun and I enjoyed spending time with all of Chase's relatives, hopefully we'll be able to visit some of them before the summer is over!

Our summer.

This summer has been really crazy. We moved to California with my family so Chase could "work", but we've ended up going on so many trips, it truly is a summer vacation! Chase has been interning at my dad's engineering company and he says he's gaining a lot of experience. I didn't get a job so I could help my mom take care of Aubrey and my Grandpa who lives with us. He has Parkinson's disease and some dementia so it's IMPOSSIBLE to leave him alone at the house. There is some outside help, but she can't live here so either my mom or I have to be here pretty much all the time. It's fun to play with Aubrey everyday though! My mom says we can't have too much fun because she remembers EVERYTHING and she'll want to play like that everyday! Aubrey and I swinging, one of her favorite activities. She might look scared, but she's not! Besides that we've had some fun vacations! It started when we left Utah and drove to Bakersfield to see Chase's family.
Chase's dad had to set the timer and run to get in the pic.. haha. It was really fun spending time with them and we even got to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary!
Chase got me a huge present for my birthday and it ended up being an amazing new set of pots! He was just as happy as I was.
For our anniversary I made Chase a book called "Our Story" and it told the story of how we met until we got married. I tried to upload a video of Chase reading it but it wasn't working, I'll try again later.
After Bakersfield we drove to Monterey for the weekend as a present from Chase :) We went to the pier Friday night and the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Saturday. It was so fun! I don't know why I haven't tried this being married thing earlier! Haha. This is a pic of us on the pier.
Here we are outside the aquarium... I bet Chase thinks he's pretty lucky!
After the weekend we finally headed into Lodi for the summer. Besides watching Aubrey and spending time with my mom, we've also been camping for memorial weekend, gone to Bako again for Ashlee's graduation, had numerous BBQ's, had a reception for Beth's wedding, and gone to the desert for a week! Here are some of our favorite pics from the desert trip. All us girls in the truck about to drive out to the dry lake bed. Somehow Beth managed to get into the picture too! On the dry lake bed with my honey :) We were setting up for the bowling ball cannon, and be "we" I mean the boys dug the hole while the girls watched. Out with the shotguns. Chase was amazing, I only looked it... haha. Fireworks. Chase was getting creative with the bottle rockets, shooting them from his fly. I was okay shooting them from a bush.