Cars 2 and Pirate Island

If you haven't noticed yet, my sister-in-laws family is in town and it has been so much fun! My mother-in-law calls me everyday and invites me over and I get to go play with my adorable nieces and brand new nephew. Today they called me and they were headed over to the Spanish Fork theater to see Cars 2. I was so excited!! I loved the first Cars and I have been waiting for the second one to come out for a while.

For me-the movie did not disappoint. They had so many funny car references and even some boat ones. At the beginning of the movie, one of the crab boats from the show "Deadliest Catch" made an appearance and it cracked me up. (Mainly because Doug and I love the show, and his family thinks it's dumb.) The movie had our blue Miata, and the VW Van, I'm pretty positive, had a Delaware license plate! The movie was mostly from Mater's perspective which made it hilarious. I love that cute, rusty tow truck.

After Doug and Phil got off work, we all met up at Pirate Island. Basically it's the pirate version of Chuck-e-Cheese. We got to have pirate servers, eat yummy pizza, get some balloon animals, and even get to play some arcade games.

Allie and Bella up on the "ship."

Owning the ship.

Allie's Princess crown.

Stacie's dragon.

Danaca's seahorse.

Bella's flower.

Merry go round with silly Uncle Buck (Phil)

Uncle Buck being silly.

After pirate island we went back to Kari and Wayne's and on the way back we saw a very pretty rainbow.

McD's, Splash Park and Shotguns

I got a call at about noon being invited to go to McDonald's for lunch with Kari, Jenn, Allie, Bella, and little Clarke. We went and ate, and then afterwards we went over to Spanish Forks new splash park. It was pretty busy, but plenty of fun!

They played at the splash park first! Cute Bella and Allie.

Running over because it was a little cold.

Getting all dried off so they could go play on the playground.

Grandma Kari pushing Bella.

Bella and Allie trying this out. Bella was not quite heavy enough so Grandma had to help push her down.

After the splash park, I went back to my apartment and waited for Doug to get home from work. We had made plans to go shooting with his family later that evening. However, Utah has decided that it is April and it likes to rain every single day. So right before Doug got home, it started pouring! I was sad because I was looking forward to shooting our shotgun again. Luckily though, this Utah weather doesn't last too long. It poured for about a half hour and then it cleared up. We met everyone up the canyon at this nice little clearing that you can shoot for free, well no admission fee at least. Jenn, Eric, Stacie, Wayne, Phil, and his girlfriend Danaca were all there! We had our shotgun, both of Wayne's and then Eric brought his from Texas.

Doug throwing clay pigeons, Phil and Stacie shooting, and Wayne observing.

Wayne throwing for Doug and Eric.

Doug and Eric. Doug got tired, so he sat down.

Stacie giving me the finger guns, while Doug pretends he's pregnant.

Eric and Danaca

Stacie and Danaca

Teaching Jenn how to hold the shotgun.

Jenn and Eric

Moving my hair while Phil is messing around.

Phil and me shooting.

We all did pretty good. Doug went 10 for 10 though. I was impressed with his sit down shooting personally.

When we went back to Kari and Wayne's we had some yummy burgers.

Jenn's Birthday

Happy Birthday Jenn!!!!

We had a day of parties today for Doug's sister, Jenn. Her daughters, Allie and Bella, wanted soo badly to throw a surprise party for their Mom, so we did our best.

The day started out with the cute Price family up at Eric's parents house getting ready to drive down to Jenn's parents' house. We planned to meet them at Brick Oven at noon. This was a surprise for Jenn, so Eric couldn't tell her to go faster, because it was her birthday, so she was just trying to have a relaxing morning! They ended up getting there around 12:30, which is pretty good!! We had some yummy food and then headed over to the Buhler's house.

When we got back, Allie wanted to have a meeting outside with Kari, me and Bella. When on the porch, we planned an amazing surprise party. We were about to leave to go buy decorations when Kari realized she had a hair appointment to get to, so I ended up being the awesome aunt and took them shopping and then back to my apartment. We made an amazzzing confetti cake, and made a big poster for their mom. It took us a while because we had to wait for the cake to cool.

Here's the awesome cake with the girls!

The Birthday Sign.

Even though Jenn was not too surprised, I think the girls had an amazing time decorating and planning a surprise party for their Momma.

Side note: My good friend from school, Melanie, came over to see me!!! I haven't seen her in a very long time because she moved to North Carolina. It was so good to see you Mel!!!

Happy 4th

Happy real 4th of July!!

I am so thankful for being able to live in this amazing country!

Our 4th of July is usually spent at Doug's parents house with BBQing and swimming, so we went over there to have some fun! When we got there, his parents were out driving up the Canyon with Doug's cousins, Steve and Jill and were going to be back around 3:30. Well we got there around 3 and thought nothing of it that they weren't there. We were about to get into the pool when Doug got a phone call from Jill. She basically said, the road gave out and 2 tires are hanging of the side. We can't get enough traction to get out, so you need to come and get us out. Doug got the directions and hunted down tow straps, chains, shovels, and most importantly a truck with 4 wheel drive. (Steve's truck has ALL of this, but his keys were with him.) Maraina and Danny were on their way over, so Doug recruited Danny to the adventure. Phil (Doug's younger brother) was also included in the adventure. They had to figure out, even with the directions, where they were actually located. When they set off on their trek, I stayed behind and hung out with Raina and Stacie. When Phil, Doug, Danny, and Danaca (Phil's girlfriend) got to Doug's parents, they were almost pulled all of the way out. Luckily, there was a truck and a jeep that drove by and Kari and Jill were able to waive down to help. Doug told me that the Tahoe that they borrowed wouldn't have been able to get the truck out so they were reallly lucky. They got back around 8 and we started BBQing. We also made a new rule. There is only BBQing and swimming on the 4th of July, no adventures.

Friends when Married

Friends are funny when you are married. It is no longer "am I going to get along with them?" You have to think about 2 personalities meshing with 2 personalities.

Doug and I have been pretty lucky with having different friends to hang out with, whether they are single or married. Because he grew up in Utah, we still hang out with a lot of his friends from growing up. For me, there is always that "adjustment" time to be friends with the wives or girl friends, where you try to find some common ground. But I feel I have been pretty lucky, the "adjustment" time has never lasted long. If we hang out with any of my friends from growing up, I never know what to expect. Usually its because I don't know the boyfriend or husband and I'm unsure if Doug would actually have fun. (This is always in my head though, because Doug can get along with anyone until they are mean to him. haha.)

A couple years ago, Doug and I had a joint birthday party and I wanted to invite some of "my" friends. So I did. I invited a few people from growing up that ended up not being able to come, but I invited my friend Blaine who I have been pretty good friends since we were very little kids. I knew that Doug would get along with him, because they are similar in many ways, so I was unsure if I was going to get along with his girlfriend Daylin. That night, I knew I was going to be perfectly fine getting along with her! Blaine would say something, and Daylin would say something right back at him with no hesitation. She cracked me up.

Over the last few years we have hung out a few times, but our schedules seemed to not match up very good. Well, tonight was another time when we got to hang out! Doug was excited to see Blaine, and I was excited to see Daylin. What Doug didn't know was that Daylin and I had accidentally planned to hang out at their apartment during the same time as Stadium of Fire (Provo's big 4th of July celebration). And that meant that we got to see fireworks!!! When we got there, people were already getting parked and finding their spots for the fireworks. We drove our Miata because we knew parking would be hard, and we found the perfect spot! It was only a block away from Blaine and Daylin's and only our size car would fit. :) Our plan for the night was games, dessert, and fireworks. I brought a yummy berry pie, and we played "Monopoly Deal." Doug's eyes immediately lit up because he loooves Monopoly, and I was like oh man here it comes, because I am very bad at Monopoly. We both fell in love with the game! And we are totally going to buy it. We ate some berry pie, and then we went outside to wait for the fireworks. They live so close to the stadium that we just sat out in their parking lot and had perfect seats! To avoid traffic we ended up staying until midnight. We thought we were going to play more games, but we just ended up talking. Doug and I had such a good time, I might be able to get him to see those fireworks again! haha. Thanks to Blaine and Daylin for having us over!!

22 Weeks

Baby Girl

Our baby girl has grown so much! Right now her favorite thing to do is to just stretch out and keep her feet or hands or even her head pressed up really hard against me. It has been really funny to feel her flipping over and what not. Last week I was able to feel her flip completely over. I was sitting on the couch and all of the sudden I felt this pressure go from the right side of my stomach to the left side. When I felt my stomach I could feel her (what I think is her head) moving. It was pretty cool to feel. Now she is always stretching out and taking advantage of the room she has.

She loves to show off for her Daddy. Whenever he has his hand on my stomach to feel her move, she always kicks the hardest. I swear she knows that its him. Doug usually talks to her and tells her to kick harder. haha.

These are the clothes Kari bought our little girl last Thursday. So cute!! The one on the left says "Daddy's Little Girl" and the one on the right says "Mommy and Me."

Me

I get bigger daily. My favorite thing Doug has told me is "Wow you really do get bigger every day." He always makes me laugh! Sleeping has been a little harder for me. I have no problem getting comfortable (luckily), I just wake up every couple hours to pee. If I only wake up 3 times, it's a good night.

22 Weeks and Counting! (Sorry for the goofy smile)

I have been keeping myself busy around my apartment with cleaning and cooking and what not. But I also have been able to go over Raina and Danny's to just hang out. I went over there the other night and she made me delicious Taco Salad :) Thanks Raina!!

I am also staying busy with my church calling. I am the Young Women's Assistant Girls Camp Director (all capital words makes it seem more important). Last Tuesday we went on a hike up to the "Y." For those of you not from Utah, the "Y" is BYU. The mountain behind BYU has a giant Y on it and it is a pretty fun hike. For camp, the girls have to do certain certifications, and I was in charge of the hiking certifications. We decided to hike the "Y" because I heard it was pretty easy. It's 2.4 miles round trip. What I didn't realize was how steep the hike would be. I am now 5 and a half months pregnant and I got a little winded faster then I expected. But every time I saw a little kid go past me, I would just say to myself "pshhh this is easy, these 5 year olds can do it!" My baby decided to sit on my bladder the entire time, so that was fun, but other than that it was a really good hike. The girls did a great job and they all remembered a snack and water to keep them hydrated.

This is what the giant Y looks like. (Not my picture. Thanks Google)

The view looking straight across Provo over to Utah Lake.

The view looking more towards Spanish Fork (southish).

Changing our Brakes

Disclaimer - Some car part names could be wrong. I try to remember things that Doug and his Dad tell me, but sometimes they get mixed up. But I did my best.

A couple weeks ago we got a notice in the mail saying that we needed to renew our registration for our Miata. With renewing the registration I had to go and get the car inspected with safety and emissions. Well I finally got around to it last week and we passed! Which is always good with a car that was made in 1990. When I talked to the guy afterwards he said that we were close to failing because of the back brakes and I needed to change them in the next week. I assured him that I would get it done and I thanked him for passing us anyway. (Please know that I have gone to this guy for 3 years and he has never lead me astray. Last time I thought our brakes were bad because they were squeaking and he said they were perfectly fine, just a little dusty.) He did, however, mark down that the back brakes were 2/32 (thanks to my dad, I now know how to type that but that basically means that you have an 8th of an inch left..maybe less but I can't remember..before its rubbing metal) and that our front brakes were 7/32. He got me all worried so I immediately told Doug and I was assigned to go get some brakes. We figured why not just replace all four brakes.

Yesterday I picked up the brakes and after Doug got off work, we made the 10 minute trek over to his parents house to use his Dad's tools. It's nice to have family close by that we can just steal their garage and tools :)

I usually help him with fixing our cars because I love learning all of the mechanics of it. I can proudly say that I know how to take apart our engine enough to change the timing belt, the accessory belt, and a third one but I can't remember what it's called. I can also change the shifter boot (did that by myself once), and I know HOW to fix the clutch slave cylinder. Now could I do this without supervision, probably not, but it's still fun to say that I know how to! Anyway, the brakes were a little different. There wasn't a whole lot I could help with considering Doug and his Dad were trying to figure out how the brakes came across. Our Miata seems to be designed differently then any other car.

First they took off the wheel and proceeded to change the brakes like every other car, but the piston wouldn't come loose so they figured it would be better if they looked it up. I was sent to google it, and to our...mainly their...surprise, that wasn't how they were changed at all! They were a whole lot simpler. So Doug reattached all of the bolts that he took off and we (they) started from scratch with the step by step instructions. It is a pretty cool design, according to them, where the brake caliber just flips up after 2 bolts are taken out and then the old brakes slide out, and the new ones slide right in. It took a while to figure out, but if we would have looked up directions first, it should have only taken about 5 minutes a tire.

Here are some pictures that I took with my cell phone. I figured that I have a blog now, I might was well document my fun and exciting life!

The rear brakes. I had already handed them one half of one, that's why there are only 3. Please notice the very old school box.

My job - computer research.

Doug and his Dad following the step by step instructions that I found.

Brakes changed. - Old ones on the floor.

Our so called 2/32 left on our brakes. Apparently they have way more than that.

The other brake that only took about 5 minutes to change.

Dirty Douglas after the adventure. His face is all dirty because he kept putting his head all the way in the wheel place so he could see the back of the brakes.

After this, we probably won't go back to the same Safety and Emissions place. Doug's dad thinks that they sold it to someone else. I didn't notice while I was there, but that's because I only see them once a year. Our front brakes were really good. They have a lot of time left, so we didn't even change them. I always forget how lucky I am to have a husband that knows how to fix things by himself. If we just trusted the guy and brought it to a shop to have the brakes changed, it would have been so expensive! I have never had to take our car into the repair shop for an engine problem, and I hope to keep it that way. I am so grateful for Doug and his Mr. Fix It skills!! (If he doesn't know how, he just googles it. haha.)