Good Summer times continue June 16th-21st

I never blog current events because I'm always playing catch up wanting to blog about things that happened forever ago . . . today I start to kick that habit by documenting what we've been up to the last week!

Monday

Monday I didn't have to work most of the day so I felt like I could do anything, I love that feeling! It was great to get a lot of little things done like cleaning our car (let's not even talk about the last time it had really been cleaned). I also was lucky enough to get to go to lunch with one of my wonderful companions, my trainer actually, Jenny (Elsey) Peterson. She actually moved down to St. George just a few days afterwards so I was lucky to catch her! It's always good to catch up with old friends, especially from the mission.

That night we got to go to the Nelson Family Party! We love these monthly get togethers. You can always count on fun people, delicious food, adorable kiddos and lots of laughing. Family time is the best, we are so lucky to have lots of family close by.

We celebrate birthdays and wedding anniversaries for the month, so this was our month!

Tuesday 

The main thing I can remember doing on Tuesday was sewing. For graduation my parents gave me a ton of sewing supplies and my Grandma Mitton's sewing machine, such a great gift! My mom is a wizard (no exaggeration) with a sewing machine. Growing up I've done a few projects here and there, but nothing major. I've always wanted to get into it more though. So to now have my own machine and everything it is really fun! Even though I have to constantly call my mom with questions about the best way to do something or how to fix my mistakes it has been really fun so far! Currently I've been working on a quilt that I am so excited about!

Since when does it snow in JUNE?! At least it made the mountains even more beautiful than usual.

Wednesday

Today's highlight was definitely going to lunch with the one and only Christie Beck Boswell! She has got to be one of the most terrific people I have ever known and I am seriously lucky to call her a lifelong friend. We went to Cafe Fresh (my fave) and sat and talked for hours. It was so good to catch up on so many things, especially since her and Michael are moving to Milwaukee for med school next month! :( 

There is always laughter when Christie is around and one of my favorite things today was there was this little family eating a couple of tables away from us. As they left their little girl was pushing an old school style baby carriage...as it turned so we could see inside the baby carriage we expected to see a little baby...well there was a little baby, it just wasn't a human. Haha the cutest puppy was sitting in there! Not exactly expected, but adorable and hilarious!

Also that night Russ and I went over to the park by our house to hit wiffle balls (the golf ball kind). I've never really golfed, but we went to the driving range a couple weeks ago and I think I could get into it!

Always fun to just do something fun with Russ :)

Thursday

Thursday is our night that we get to be ordinance workers in the Provo temple. All day at work I was excited to go to the temple. When it came time to go I had already gotten dressed, made dinner and we were even ready to walk out the door a little bit early. I went to grab my recommend out of my bag and . . . you can guess the story. No where to be found! We searched everywhere, prayed about, searched some more. Nothing. As we were looking I started to randomly have my Grandma Mitton on my mind a ton. She lives here in Provo and just had a major surgery a couple weeks ago. I kept thinking that I needed to go and see her/check on her. So eventually we decided that we'd better get Russ to the temple for his shift on time and that I would go to my grandma's after dropping him off.

As we were driving to the temple I love the conversation we were having. I had been so excited to go to the temple that day, but even though I couldn't find my recommend and wouldn't be able to go I was still in a really good mood. So as we were driving I was saying how I'd been so excited to go to our shift that day and what a bummer that I couldn't go etc etc and then Russ says "atleast . . .well don't take this the wrong way . . .but at least you're not crying or anything, normally you might be!" All we could do was laugh because I completely agreed!

I dropped Russ off and then went up to my Grandma's house. Here I was thinking I was following a prompting to go check on her and visit . . . but then guess what happens? They weren't even home!

It's funny how that happens sometimes with promptings, but I really think that sometimes the Lord just want to check that you are listening, so that when it's really important he can trust you to obey right away.

Instead of seeing my Grandma I took our car through the car wash (wish is always so fun to me haha) 

Then I went to the driving range. 

Yup. All by my onesie and went and hit a big bucket of balls. It was so fun! I could really give this a golf thing a try.

 I spent the rest of my night working on my sewing project which I FINISHED! That was exciting :) 

Pictures to come I promise.

Friday

Every good summer needs a nice trip to the rodeo! We went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove with Rob and Angie and it was so fun! Anytime we spend with Rob and Ang is a blast, there is always something to laugh about, and I love talking to Angie. 

I felt really patriotic at this rodeo, and it was also raising money for cancer awareness so that was a bonus.

Some of my favorite events were the "mutton bustin'" where little kids hang on for dear life trying to stay on sheep, it is always the cutest! There were some tough little kids that's for sure. 

They also did "Wild Cow Milking" which we had never seen before but it was hilarious! There were about 5 teams of three people and they had to catch their cow that was just running loose, hold it in one spot and get enough milk to fill a coke bottle. It was so funny! Guys were chasing cows and holding on to their ropes and being drug behind them through the mud. No other rodeo I've been to has had that and I was loving it! Otherwise I have to say that those rodeo cowboys are some of the bravest (crazy?) people ever, just watching them makes my back hurt!

Saturday

Sheesh Saturday was a big day! Robbie, Angie, Russ and I had signed up to do the Huntsman 140 bike race, which also raises money for cancer research. The 4 of us went to sleep over at the compound in Murray (that's what we call Russ' parents house haha) because we had to get an early start in the morning. The race began at the Huntsman Cancer Institute up at the U. We got up there around 8 or so after getting our bikes loaded and ready to go and then started our ride just before 9:00. 

We even got to write at the starting line who we were riding in honor of on this special Cancer Fundraiser ride, we had said we were riding for Emily Wittwer. She is Russ' amazing aunt who passed away from breast cancer roughly 20 years ago. I never knew her, but I've known her sons for a long time and now the rest of her family and I am genuinely amazed by how much everyone admires her and the good influence she still has on so many today. Also as we passed the finish line at the end they announced our names and also "riding for Emily Wittwer".

This was such a blast! A majority of the ride heading south was on Wasatch Blvd and went along the entire east bench down to Draper where we eventually came back north on 7th East. The course was gorgeous! I wish I had taken some pictures. Russ and I stayed together for the whole 50 miles and it is just so fun and special to have things like that which we love to do together. Russ is faster than me so I have to really push to keep up with him, which is actually really fun for me. 

I told you it takes work for me to keep up

This course along Wasatch had a lot of big hills, which were a killer to go up...but a BLAST to come down! One of my favorite things was after climbing a huge hill I started the downhill, was really gathering some speed and then Russ comes cruising past me on the left with a huge smile on his face and yelling to me "I love this!" . . . It was awesome :)

Didn't mind this for 50 miles

A big thanks goes to Angie for getting all of us into this race for free because she works for Qualtrics and they were the main sponsor. We even got free awesome jerseys! 

Let's be honest...I'm addicted to races, something about it is just so fun!

Instead of taking it easy for the rest of the day we joined the rest of the Irion clan to get some major yard and house work done at the compound in preparation for Rich and Gloria to come home from their mission (hurray!) Russ and I actually really love doing this kind of work, especially in groups and especially with family. So it really was a fun day, and we got a lot done!

Somehow around 8:30 we decided we still had some energy left so we'd head to the drive-in for a double feature with Liz and Logan. Long story short is that we borrowed my dad's giant truck, and the boys even strapped a mattress and box spring to the back! It looked hilarious. But turns out after waiting in line for 45 minutes at the drive in the movies we wanted to see were sold out! Who knew the drive in sold out?! Oh well, we had fun being with Liz and Logan anyway.

Sunday

Today was our pizza extravaganza with the Irion clan. We all have family dinner together at the compound every other sunday. This time Russ and I volunteered to be in charge of the main course. Naturally we went with Russ' famous homemade pizza...seriously his pizza is SO good.

We got straight to work making the dough before we headed to murray, and then we did the rest at the compound. All in all we had 3 ovens/pizza stones heated up and we cranked out 8 different pizzas like an assembly line. Russ is in charge of the dough and the baking, I do the sauce and the toppings. Just to get you salivating here's a sampling of what we made

Cheese

Pepperoni

Garlic Pesto Chicken

Hawaiian

Meatlovers

Supreme

BBQ Chicken.

Yea, it was even better than it sounds. I wish we would have taken pictures, I seem to be saying that a lot!

That is my long winded review of our week. All of you are probably bored out of your mind (if you even made it this far) but I am glad that now I won't forget!