Merry Christmas!

{Christmas Card 2013}

Phase Three. Great Barrier Reef.

Phase Two. NZ

Phase Two.
New Zealand

After dealing with a cancelled flight that turned out to not be cancelled, we made it to New Zealand. First stop? Campervan.

A campervan was hands down the best way to explore New Zealand. If you ever travel there, that's the way to do it. I know it sounds crazy (or "ratchet" as my cheerleaders would say), but it was the awesome.

{Jonathan was a pro by the end of our trip}

{We LOVED the green rolling hills}

 

{3 Sisters Rock Formations}

{NZ Hamilton Temple}

{The Shire}

{A Hobbit hole!}

{Absolutely stunning}

{Hobbiton}

{Fox and Franz Josev glaciers}

{3 Bowen boys}

{Christchurch}

{Black Water Rafting}

Phase One. Sydney.

G'day mate!

We recently returned from a dream trip to Australia and New Zealand.

It.
Was.
Awesome.

Really, we couldn't have asked for a better trip. We sure were worn out, but we had the time of our lives.


Phase One.
Sydney

We kicked off the trip with a full day in the beautiful harbor city. We toured the Opera house, gazed at the bridge and soaked up the Sydney vibe.

Next we took off and explored what Featherdale Wildlife Park had to offer. The train ride out there was over 2 hours roundtrip, but it was well worth it. We met koalas, wallabies, dingos, emus and kangaroos just to name a few. We were like little kids in a candy store. Except we were grown adults squealing in delight each time we found a new animal we could make friends with. We LOVED it.

We also rode out to the Blue Mountains and checked out what has been dubbed the "grand canyon" of Australia. It was cold and windy, but beautiful.

Seattle + San Juan Islands

And I thought Palo Alto had a lot of trees.

We were able to visit Adam (Jonathan's brother) in Seattle and take a trip up to the San Juan's over Memorial Day weekend. I had never been, and I absolutely fell in love with the area.

{view from Kerry park}

               {The TROLL}                       {Breakfast at Portage Bay}

{Cheering on the Mariners at Safeco}

Earlier this year when Jonathan and I were on vacation, we were introduced to the Thomas family. We were thrilled to be able to meet up with this amazing family and see them again!

{Love them}

After running around Seattle for a day, we took a ferry over to the San Juan islands!

{So beautiful, yet so cold}

Unfortunately, it rained almost the entire time that we were on the island.

Shocker.

Though, it did make for an excellent Jurassic Park or Hunger Games scene.

{Adam and I getting soaked on our hike}

I didn't get any pictures of our whale watching excursion. Probably because it was freezing and pouring rain.

It was pretty awesome though. 

We saw a bald eagle. We sailed into Canadian waters. We made friends with a humpback whale.

We definitely will have to visit again soon!

Vegas, baby!

Last weekend the Paly cheer team competed at Jamz Nationals in Las Vegas!

Here is a link to the video of the performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0kqPtxy3I0&feature=youtube_gdata

They rocked it, huh?

{Cool stunt, bro}

So proud of these girls. I absolutely love being their coach.

{work it.}

{Cheer Comp Team 2013}

GO PALY!!!

Surprise Burfday.

SURPRISE!!

Jonathan turned 28 this past Friday, and I threw him a surprise birthday party to celebrate!

{so fun!} 

I felt bad because I was going to be in Vegas on his actual birthday, so I came up with the idea to throw a surprise party to try and make up for it. 

The day of he was definitely on to me. But, thanks to some quick thinking and some help from friends we successfully kept it a secret!

I even made my famous lemon cupcakes for the occasion.

{Yum.}

Thanks to everyone who came!! We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends. 

{ I forgot to get a group shot :( }

A White Christmas

We had such a wonderful, crazy, busy and snowy Christmas.
I loved it!

We kicked off our holiday season by hosting an Ugly Sweater Christmas Party. Here is our portrait from the evening's festivities. 

{Yes, Jonathan did grow a mustache for the occasion}

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating Gingerbread houses. In my family we always decorate them after Thanksgiving dinner but since we were in Mexico, we did it later in the month!

{We've got mad skillz}

Jonathan has been begging Steve all season to take him to a football game and it finally worked out!

Steve invited Jonathan to tag along to the Monday Night Football game (Jets @ Titans).  He LOVED every minute of it. 

{Contrary to popular belief, this is NOT photoshopped}

There was a lot of downtime in between segments, so Jonathan got to meet some of the players. He tried to get a picture with Tebow but he was easily the most popular and hardest person to catch. (Too bad, I really wanted a picture of him with Tebow, tebowing)

{Jonathan with Matt Hasselbeck}

He even got to play catch with Steve and Trent during pregame with a ball that they stole from the Jets. Jonathan ended up holding onto it and getting the whole crew to sign the ball!

{Of course, this is now on display in our home}

Jonathan can't stop talking about how awesome it was. Hopefully he gets to go again, and maybe I can tag along as well!

{Thanks Steve!!}

Jonathan really wanted a white Christmas, and his wish was definitely granted. It snowed 10-12 inches in the valley when we there. Even though we aren't huge fans of the cold weather in Utah, it's always fun to have it snow on Christmas.

Jonathan was finally able to get some skiing time at Snowbird!

{Jonathan + Ross}

On Christmas Eve we stopped to check out the lights at Temple Square in downtown SLC. It was a blizzard! It took us several tries to get a picture where there wasn't a snowflake in front of our faces. The lights are so beautiful, and we were excited to see that they brought back the ZCMI candy windows!

{SOOO cold!}

We spent Christmas day bouncing back and forth between our families.  It was so fun to see everyone and spend an entire day in our jammies!

{I got to meet our new nephew, Henry!}

{Opening presents at the Haskells}

My favorite part about Haskell Christmas was Jer getting his Roman gladius sword. Yes, a REAL sword. Like the kind that could chop off my head if I swung hard enough, sword. Between that and his Russian fur hat, he had quite the ensemble.

We also treated Jonathan's brothers to pedicures to ring in the new year!

{They were THRILLED to be there}

We were so lucky to receive so many Christmas cards this year! We are so grateful to have such fabulous friends and family who love and support us. 

{Our card ribbon was as tall as me. I had to take a picture!}

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year!

{Christmas Card 2012}