SUNday

Today has been an amazing day. Spiritual enlightments at church, spinach/artichoke grilled cheese for lunch, photo bombing by Bruno, and naps/cuddling with the Mr... could life get any better?! Happy Sunday!

Sundance Film Festival

Chad and I went to the Sundance Film Festival on Wednesday night. We decided to go up a little early to eat at the Foundry Grill. Chad ordered a New York steak and I ordered Penne Pasta, it was pretty good, but it paid a pretty penny. At least we enjoyed the experience :)

We saw "A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night" directed by Lily Amirpour. It was very interesting, I have never seen a movie like that before. 

After the show, the director and crew came onto the stage. It was fun listening to the director and listening to how she came up with the movie.

It was such a great night with Chad. I'm the luckiest girl in the world to be married to such a sweetheart!

Car Show

Each year, my family goes to the South Towne Expo Center for the Car Show. Chad and I met my parents and Ryan & Christine up there. Our favorite cars this year were the Mercedes SUV, Chevrolet truck and a Volkswagen SUV.

Looking at the beautiful, brand new cars, makes us definitely want to buy one, but I have to admit, it is nice not having a car payment. My parents bought me a 2009 Nissan Versa when I was a senior, and Chad has a 1999 Honda Civic that has been passed down from sibling to sibling. Since Chad is the youngest, he gets to keep it. We have been very blessed with cars and we don't plan on buying one until we absolutely need to.

We met up with the Chai's (Ryan's family), at Texas Roadhouse for lunch. It was so fun catching up with them. On our way home, Chad and I went shopping at Scheel's. I have been in desperate need of new workout clothes, so we went on a little shopping spree. I love when Chad is in a shopping mood!

Later that night, Chad was still in a shopping mood and insisted that I needed a new coat. I only have 2 coats and they are both very similar and pretty worn. We found a really cute Michael Kors black coat that we couldn't resist. It looks similar to this…

We stopped at Taco Amigo and got our usual order, cheese quesadilla and fries… so tasty! We were both in the mood to relax since we had been going all day. Chad set up the projector in the theater room and we watched some good ol' Napoleon Dynamite. It was a great day/night with the MR!

Park City

On Friday night, we went with the Duffy's up to Park City to do a little celebrity stalking. It was the opening night of the Sundance Film Festival. We stopped at a pizza restaurant for some dinner then headed to Main Street. 

It was insanely busy. It drove around for 20 minutes trying to find a parking spot. There was one parking lot that was open, but it was $20 to park, which is such a rip off, but we were seriously so desperate. We wandered up and down Main Street keeping our eyes peeled for celebrities. We had no luck.

 

As we were walking to our car, Tyler and Melissa spotted Roger Sterling from Mad Men. Chad and I have never seen it before, so we didn't recognize him. Everyone was too nervous to get their picture with him. For some reason, I have no fear going up to people, I figure I will never see them again so who cares. I dragged Melissa along with me. 

The guys waited up the street, they were too embarrassed (they ended up seeing Katie Couric!) Roger Sterling was talking with some friends, so we waited for 5 minutes until he started saying goodbye. I immediately went up to him. He was very friendly. It was hilarious because once we got a couple snapshots with him, everyone walking by instantly recognized him and floods of people just started swarming up to him. I'm glad we at least saw one celebrity. It made the adventure worth it!

Howling Competition

We have been teaching Bruno how to howl on command. It has taken him a while to get it down, but I think he has finally mastered it. In fact, he started having a little competition with Chad. I think he won... sorry Chad :) 

I love relaxing nights at the house with these two. They are my absolute favorite. There is no one I would rather spend my nights with! Happy Thursday!

New Year, New Hair

Last year, I was diagnosed with Alopecia (you can read that story here and here). I haven't lost any hair since then, so I thought it was just a one-time thing. On Tuesday, I got out of the shower and started doing my hair and noticed a patch of hair missing.

My heart sunk. 

Luckily it wasn't as big as the last one, but it's right next to my 1- 1/2" scar (which doesn't have hair) and its close to my forehead. 

I quickly called the dermatologist and scheduled an appointment to get a steroid injection. Even though it's a painful shot in the head, I am so grateful there is a way to get the hair growing again.

Ever since I lost the patch of hair, I have hated everything about my hair. I just wanted to shave it off. But since Chad didn't even consider that an option, I decided to add a little more color. 

My hairstylist is Brittany at Suggestions Salon, and she is amazing! She never ceases to amaze me. I am so happy to bring in the new year with a little more color. Thanks Brittany!

Ice Castles

For our Friday night date, we went with the Duffy's up to Midway to see the famous ice castles that everyone has been talking about. 

Once we got into Midway, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. They had an amazing salsa bar with many different salsas. Chad and I should've just ate that. It was so addicting that we were full by the time our food came out. Needless to say, we still at our enchiladas AND dessert afterwards (which we regretted later).

Chad and I have pretty good luck, mostly with random events. When we were walking to get in line for tickets at the ice castles, some random lady stopped Chad and said she had 4 extra tickets for us. What a generous lady! Tickets were $10/each, so we saved $40 altogether! That made up for our bill at the restaurant :)

The ice castles were incredible! There were waterfalls coming out of the icicles, color changing icicles, and tons of different variations of icicles. I would definitely recommend seeing them, it's amazing!

New Years Eve

On New Years Eve, Chad and I saw "Saving Mr. Banks". If you haven't seen it, you NEED to! It is a classic. After the movie, we hung out at my parents house with my nieces and nephews. We ate pizza, played games and did fireworks. My family sure knows how to party.

Later that night, some of our friends came over to our house and we played some games, ate treats, watched the Times Square countdown, and talked until we couldn't keep our eyes open. It was quite the night.

This year has been absolutely amazing, probably one of the best ones yet. It has been a year with lots of adventures, happiness and spontaneity.

These are some of my most memorable memories from this year:

* getting Bruno

* NYC

* visiting Brian & Nicole in Indiana

* road trips to Colorado

* building a dog house

* teaching Chad how to ride a motorcycle

* splurging on bikes and taking weekly bike rides up the canyon

* taking a golf class with my mom at UVU

This year is going to be pretty hard to beat, but I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for us!