Thanksgiving Extravaganza

I got to spend Thanksgiving this year with Dan's family, which is always a treat. Because I don't come from a big family, I enjoy the chance to feel like a part of Dan's extended family, which is quite large. Thanksgiving this year was at Grandpa Karl's house in Salt Lake City and almost everyone was there. I was most excited about being able to see the Martins, Dan's sister and her family, since they moved to Texas earlier in the year and I felt like I hadn't seen them in forever! Connie and Roy, Dan's parents were also coming, so it was going to be quite the event!

I was so excited to see Kate, and she was pretty excited to see me too!

Traditionally, Dan said that his Grandpa has a pie making contest, and since I got a new gourmet cookbook for my birthday in October, Dan and I were determined to enter and win. We practiced making pies from the 16th of October (my birthday) until the week of Thanksgiving until we figured we had a winner. We ended up making a Passion Fruit Merengue pie, which was so tasty! Dan was particularly proud of the perfect merengue top, which we browned ourselves in the oven. We won 2nd place, and our prize was utensils for making more pies, which we will!

Our pie is the one in the front. It was delicious!

Election Night Party

This one is coming a little bit late, but it was so fun that I really wanted to post about it. Because my sister is a member of the BYU Young Republican club, she invited us to the Republican Election night Gala at the Grand American Hotel in Salt Lake City. We went not knowing what to expect, but had such a great time. Basically, the Republican party of Utah had rented out the grand ballroom at the hotel. There were booths set up for all of the major news agencies, and it was exciting to see some of the newscasters that we see on the news all the time.

We had only been there for about ten minutes when Senator Orin Hatch walked in the door. We got to take a picture with him and talk with him for a bit. The set up was really cool. People who were running for republican office had reserved ballrooms and hotel rooms around the hotel, and you could basically just wander around and visit with the people who were running for office. The BYU Young Republicans had a hotel room, which was kind of like home base, and from there we just went from room to room meeting people. At the end of the night, people were giving their acceptance speeches, and we were able to hear from Governor Huntsman and his Deputy Governor as well as other people who had won their elections. Leah spent some time trying to get her picture taken with Governor Huntsman, and it escalated to the point where she was practically stalking him around the room. Finally she got her picture, and we headed home for the night. It was a great night, and way better than hanging out at home watching CNN with Dan and Bell.

Dan and Natalie visit baby Callie

Earlier this month we got the chance to visit Dan's newest niece, Callie. Callie is the daughter of Dan's younger brother Bryan and his wife April. She was born earlier this year in April, and is ADORABLE. They live in the Washington, DC area, so we hardly ever get to see them. I had only met Callie once before when April came down for Logan's missionary farewell. She has grown a lot since then, and is just about the cutest baby you could ever imagine. Here are some pictures that we took of the visit!

Back, by popular demand

So, still catching you up on my summer. Another exciting thing that happened this summer is that my Dad got married. My parents have been divorced for a while now, and my Dad had been living in Southern California. He had been dating a little (ldsmingle.com is apparently great for meeting older LDS people) and through that he found Marilyn.

I first found out about Marilyn when she gave me a pair of comfy socks for Christmas. I was entirely unaware of her existence before then, but boy, they were pretty comfy socks! Then I met Marilyn for the first time when Dan and I went down to Las Vegas in June. I found out earlier this year that my Dad had asked her to marry him, and that they would be married in August once my sister Allison came back from living in Japan.

Allison, Me, Dad and Leah in front of the temple

The wedding was beautiful. Marilyn is really into 'Island Culture' so the reception had a luau theme, and everybody in the wedding party got to wear leis that had been shipped from Hawaii! It was so much fun, and I was so happy for my Dad and Marilyn. They will be happy together.

Me, Allison, Marilyn and Leah right after the sealing ceremony

The Luau reception

I am possibly the worst blogger on the face of the earth!

I have not written anything in quite a while. It isn't that exciting things haven't HAPPENED to me, it's just that so many exciting things have happened that I haven't had time to BLOG about them! I will try to get you all caught up on what has happened in my summer.

First of all, I went to Tokyo, Japan with my family to pick up my sister Allison, who had been living there for the summer. It was really fun! We stayed the first couple of nights at a youth hostel, which was located in a skyscraper in the middle of town. Our room was on the 19th floor! The showers and meals were communal, but because there were four of us, we all took up a room by ourselves and didn't have to sleep with any strangers in the room. Our first day there was a Sunday, so we traveled to the nearest LDS church to attend meetings. Thank goodness, that particular ward is used to getting English speaking tourists, and had a translation device that we could wear to be able to hear the meetings translated, because it would have been crazy to sit through 3 hours of church without being able to understand a single thing!

The next day we went on a bus tour of Tokyo. It was fun, and taking the bus was quite an adventure! We traveled around to different parts of the city including markets, temples, the anime section of town, and of course, the wax food district. Yes, there is a wax food district, and it is exactly what it sounds like. It is the area of town where they make and sell wax models of food to be used for display purposes in and in front of restaurants. So in Japan, when you go to a restaurant, they usually have a couple of plates of wax food in front to give you a visual of what their specials are. It is appealing when it is something that looks fresh, like fruit, but try to imagine a wax model of beef stew, and you get the downside.

Of course, being a California girl, the next couple of days was my favorite part. We went to Tokyo Disneyland, and its sister park, Tokyo DisneySea. They were AWESOME!! I heartily encourage you to check out the description I have linked, because words can not describe how fun Tokyo Disney Sea was. Below are some pictures of me and my family enjoying the best Disney had to offer.

My mom, Leah and Me on the Jungle Cruise

Splash Mountain

We are making those hand signs, because that is what practically every Japanese person does when they get their picture taken. :)

Us with the Sumo Wrestlers

We met them while waiting to see the Disney Parade. One is from Japan, and the other is from Brazil.

More to Come Soon!!!

Does this count as breaking the 'what happens there stays there' rule?

Okay, I know it has been a while, but I'm new to this blogging thing, so I deserve at least a little slack. It isn't that my life has not been exciting as of late, because it has been, most of the reason is because I misplaced the chord to download the pictures from my digital camera to my computer. And since to me, a blog entry without pictures isn't worth the computer screen it is printed on, I decided to wait until I was able to do this thing right!

My father recently became engaged to be married to a woman named Marilyn. Since my dad lives in southern California, and I haven't been back to visit in a while (what with me being an independant woman with a full time job and all) I had never met her. Since she is about to become a new member of the family, I had the desire to meet her before the big day. My dad and I arranged to meet halfway - in Las Vegas and spend a weekend together.

I was a little nervous about the whole thing, so my boyfriend Dan said that he would come along for moral support.

We arrived in Las Vegas well ahead of the group coming from California, and since they were the ones with the room reservations, we had to come up with something to keep us busy while we waited for them to arrive. Luckily for us, it was the anniversary of the aquarium at Mandalay Bay, so they were offering admission at a significant discount. Not only was it wonderful for the sheer joy of viewing the aquatic flora and fauna, but there were fringe benefits as well:

1. Las Vegas in the summer is nearly unbearable outdoors (so forgive me for looking frazzled), but unless you have a room in which to abscond, many of the refuges from the blistering sun also have the unfortunate side effect of being noisy, disorienting and reeking of old cigarette smoke (that's right casinos, I'm talking to you). The aquarium was smoke free and air conditioned!
   


2. Because the tickets were discounted, the aquarium was packed with people, which gave me time to do what I love most: watch them. I'll just say this, people look weird when they are looking at fish in a tank, and people have some bizzare musings on fish that they say out loud.
   


3. 3. Kids! They were everywhere, and saying the darndest things! I sometimes forget how imaginitive those little guys can be. I was looking at the same exact fish, but somehow failed to notice that one looked like a sea monster, one looked lonely, and another resembled a baked potato. So, props being given to the children, can I add one more thing? Finding Nemo has forever changed the way that children view aquatic life. Every fish that remotely resembled any character from the movie was identified as such. "Look mommy, its Crush! Whoa dude!" and "There is Dory" were standard fare.


4. Crazy fish facts! Included with admission is a little walkie talkie thing that spouts facts about the fish that are in the tank in front of you. It was incredible. Did you know that there is a fish that stays near the people side of the tank because it likes to look at jewelry and hair barettes? Or that there are fish in the Amazon river that grow to be 14 feet long? Enough said.

After the aquarium, we had an enjoyable meal at the Red, White and Blue which I reviewed with a 4 out of 5 stars. It isn't that expensive or pretentious, and the food was great!

The next day, we had lunch reservations at the Mesa Grill, the signature restaurant of my favorite food network star and Iron Chef, Bobby Flay. It was delicious! Both Dan and I enjoyed finally getting to taste the fruits of a major culinary 'throwdown'. We hung around the giant toy store for a while, and then Dan and I hit the pool while the others took a nap. That night, we went to see Spamalot, which was funny, even for somebody who isn't 'that into' the movie, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected.

So all in all it was a great trip. Marilyn was great and will be the opposite of a wicked stepmother, Dan was charming and may have finally won my dad over, and I got a killer tan! Until next time!

Everybody else is doing it.... so why shouldn't I?

I have been having so much fun looking at all of my friends blogs, that I thought I might as well create one of my own.





I read recently in a magazine the opinion of a technology expert. He said that the Internet is causing people to become more self centered and narcissistic, and that blogging is the height of technological vanity, because the mere act of blogging assumes that anyone besides yourself is interested in the meaningless details of your life, but I disagree.


I have enjoyed reading the stories and seeing the pictures of my friends and their lives. I can stay updated about what people that I care about are doing, where they go on vacation and what their kids look like as they grow older. I have been able to keep myself informed about friends that I will likely not be able to see for years. I can keep in touch with families from my mission and comment on their progress and pictures.


Rather than assuming that blogging in general is about broadcasting oneself and taking joy in the fact that people are reading about MY life, I choose to believe that blogging, or sharing blogs, is about keeping in touch with loved ones and friends, maybe even about making new friends, but at the center is a desire to reach across distances, be they short or long, and connect with people, to share in the common details (no matter how meaningless) that our lives have in common.


Although my life isn't that exciting, I hope that my friends and family will enjoy reading about my life and the things I do with my time as I try to keep this blog filled to the max with pictures and stories!