Blogging is still a thing.....right?

It's been a year long break, and it's been nice.

But I realized I still like looking back and remembering things I had previously blogged about.  So for the sake of memories, I'm back.  :)

I try to jot down things I hope to never forget and this is certainly one of them.

Matt had a work conference in Park City and afterwards they went dirt biking as a group.  Throughout the afternoon, it started raining which turned Matt's clothes into a muddy mess.  He decided to spare our car seats of the mud and drive home in just his underwear.  In the process of undressing, he left his wallet on the top of the car.  You know what happens next.....Matt drives away, wallet opens up, credit cards fly all over the road and Matt scrambles to pick to pick them all up darting in and out of cars.

Fortunately, his friend was in the car behind him and was able to snap a picture.  Lucky us.

Through a strange series of events I somehow escorted Matt on a golf trip to St. George.  The trip was pretty last minute (i.e. Matt called me at 5pm and said to hurry home because we were leaving) so I just decided to go with the flow.  At about 7:30pm we realized we weren’t going to be able to find a hotel but we were already at my parent’s house dropping off Suz, so we decided to “break up the drive” (you know, cut 30 minutes off) and leave from their house in the morning. 

So, we drove 3.5 hours and arrived at the golf course just in time to tee off.  We grabbed Subway and a diet coke and were off.  Around 4pm, I realized I had been awake for 9.5 hours and had only eaten a sandwich and I was bored out of my mind, so naturally I became a bit hangry.  Over FIVE hours later, Matt finished up and we were on our way to Zions.  We hiked around for a few hours until it got dark, grabbed a quick dinner and fell deep asleep. 

Unfortunately, the next day was equally action packed.  A round of golf, a Subway sandwich, a diet coke and then a LONG drive back to make it to a family dinner party.  I’m still wondering where to pick up my wife of the year award.

Luckily Matt is probably the most entertaining person I know, so even though I was basically being held hostage in a golf cart reading travel books and fitness magazines, we still had a great time.  And even better – the sun was out!!!!!

 He was in good spirits, good enough to have his picture taken.

 Stripes for the win.  I think this is before my coke ran out.

 This hike wasn't by any means difficult, but it was cool, and this picture does not do it justice.

In typical Matt & Lisa fashion, we didn't do any research before we hopped on a bus and rode into Zions - and of course, we also didn't bring any water.  We prevailed and made it out alive.

Cheers to my Birthday Boy!

I’m engaging in a 5-10 year project of teaching Matt to enjoy his birthday.  He has this weird thing where he claims to not like it, but then no matter what you do to try to celebrate it somehow it’s not right.  It’s probably the only time I’d ever truly call Matt high maintenance.  I’m five years into the project, and by the sounds of it, I probably have a few to go….

This year Matt was lucky enough to have a Tuesday birthday (which are the worst, only next to Wednesday) because you can’t really take advantage of any weekend time to celebrate.  Of course we made up for this by turning his birthday into a week-long event, starting with a birthday dinner on Saturday, some birthday meals in between, and finally ending with a family birthday celebration at my parent’s house the following Sunday.  (And he still pretends not to like his birthday)….

Even though I think Matt is pretty high maintenance about his birthday, I still adore him and I’m so glad he’s mine. 

 Just giving the new birthday gifts a test run.

 This was the closest to a birthday cake with 26 candles as he was getting. Luckily he didn't seem to notice.

This is what happens to Suz when she spends too much time at my parents house.  She has such a fun time that she never stops to nap. 

Just Catching Up.

I suppose I’m ready to come out from winter hibernation,  which obviously merits a blog post.

If I had any recollection of January, I’d share something from that time frame.  But I’m fairly certain I spent the entire month curled up on the couch in sweats avoiding what Matt and I referred to as the “Russian Winter” because it just felt extra cold.

February was a bit more exciting, Matt took a quick golf trip to St. George, we ditched our iPhones for Droids, we celebrated Valentine’s Day for about a week, and we both accepted/started new jobs.

March was a proud month for me because I finally turned Matt into a fan of the bachelor, we probably went out to breakfast/lunch/dinner 29 of the 31 days in March, we spent a lot of time at the dog park and on walks, Matt started (obsessively) golfing again, we hosted Matt’s brother for a snowboarding weekend, and his parents came to visit 2 weeks later, I felt so exhausted from my new job that I let a shellac manicure stay on for 4 weeks and for the first time ever, Matt was the one to decide it was time to clean the house. 

So there you have it, it was a pretty glamorous winter if you ask me. 

Even though my mom said I outgrew the Easter egg hunt, I still managed to eat enough candy to go home with a stomach ache. 

 "We" started "golf season" early this year, you know...the second week of February.

 One of my most ambitions moments ever included making Matt about a million lunches to keep in the freezer for work.  #wifeoftheyear

 At the first sight of sun in February I took Suz for a run along the Jordan River Parkway.  I was being a cool "mom" and let her run through the river and mud, which was all fun and games, until she had to go home wrapped in this blanket.

 We got to go to Liv's play where she played a bird in "Frog and Toad."  She's so cute, she smiles and waves at you from the stage.

 This photo is the aftermath of the "Russian Winter."

Our little monster.

HO HO HO

How is Christmas already over?  I know everybody is saying that, but what am I supposed to look forward to now?  MLK Jr. Day?  I suppose fighting a need for sugar and sleeping in by blogging will have to suffice.

We spent Christmas at my parents this year and enjoyed all of the typical traditions.  Matt claimed that fondue dinner on Christmas Eve is the "one meal a year he really allows himself to gorge on."  Ha ha Matt, very funny.  I saw right through it.

Matt volunteered to be the narrator for the nativity play when my mom didn't take his offering to be baby Jesus seriously.  He kept on clarifying that he'd take off his shirt for the production - shockingly we stuck to plan and used Liv's cabbage patch doll for Jesus.

 A few years ago Ashleigh, Jeff and I added the tradition of getting soda from whatever gas station was open and decorating sugar cookies.  It took my mom a few years to come around to this idea but Ashleigh and I are determined to keep it around.  It's probably my favorite part of Christmas Eve.

Luckily for us, all of Ashleigh's kids require a lot of sleep so Christmas morning didn't happen until 8:30am.  I'll take that, thank you!  

This year my mom got really clever in her attempts to give us cash for Christmas.  Matt got his inside of 6 balloons, I got mine folded up inside a box of chocolates and Ansen got his inside of a tin of Pringles.  Obviously, I was dying laughing.

 

 

Our traditional breakfast was rushed when Jeff called a bit early from Spain, but it was by far the best part of the day. He'll be home before next Christmas!

Unfortunately, lonely boy bought himself a new Nintendo game for Christmas - so this became  a familiar sight.  

 And of course, the obligatory family Christmas photo.

Giving Thanks

Matt and I hosted Paul and Grace for Thanksgiving this year.  We accomplished the unthinkable - we put Thanksgiving dinner on the table, on time, without any catastrophic kitchen events (with the exception of my pretzel jello not setting up) and kept our cool all at the same time.  I even went running that morning while Matt played in a turkey bowl.  We truly outdid ourselves this year.

True to form, I apparently shelved my camera all weekend except for the photo Paul requested of Matt and I for their family Christmas card.

Without photos, we can still highlight some of our favorite memories of the weekend:
Eating at our favorite restaurants, The Pie, Asian Star, Zupas, & Tsunami.
Bowling, playing Mario Kart, and lounging.
And of course, the evening that got Paul laughing to tears....game night!

In Apples to Apples, Grace played Discovering America as "casual" and Anne Frank as "Lucky", and Paul kept on making a joke (that unfortunately I can't remember) that honestly made him cry he was laughing so hard.

Pictures or no pictures, we had a great weekend and love when Matt's family comes to visit!

Children at Heart

I know it's hard for some people to understand, but my family is one of those families that LOVES Disneyland.  We're not crazy enough to get tattoos of our favorite characters, or even buy Disney paraphernalia to wear around the park, but we still really like it.  We like it so much that we recently completed our second stint of buying FIVE day park hoppers.  We thought the last time we did it would be the last, but we proved we were up for the challenge again. 

 Just taking photos while waiting in line, we're those annoying people.

  Liv and I after Autopia, which turned out to be her favorite ride and in five days, we only rode it once!

 We rode all of the rides in Bug's Life with this little guy. 

 Just waiting for everybody else who were probably pushing an empty stroller behind us while Drew wanted to be held.

We ditched the Hatch's for a double date to Car's Land.

 Even though Matt kept on calling me Ted Kaczynski, I thought it would be worth it to try to save myself from the water on splash mountain.  It didn't work.

I couldn't love this photo more if I tried.  That's my dad with the longest arms you've ever seen.

We really out did ourselves this year and closed down the park a few times.  

 Believe it or not, we actually took a day off from Disney and went to the beach.

I could write a whole blog post about our recent obsession with doughnuts.  Luckily, this scary place called Donut Star (which was half chinese food and half donuts - all in the same glass case) did NOT disappoint.  

We all left on such a high that once again, I don't think it's the last time we'll buy the 5 day hoppers.  Who knows, maybe we'll do 6 days next time.