Festival of Colors...my hair is still pink

This is one of the craziest festivals I have ever been to. It was at the Hare Krishna Temple (reminded me a lot of Yuba City Punjabis). Everyone from everywhere comes to the festival to celebrate with these kind people. The deal is you buy bags of chalky stuff (it is a fundraiser for the temple) and at a certain time everyone throws their chalk. The chalk was sold out, so we just ran through other peoples chalk. It was so great!!!!! My hair is still pink ( a little embarrassing going to work with pink hair). We had a blast! We got to feed llamas and weird minuture cows with hump backs (maybe they are part camel?).

BYU Rugby

Ben has a few BYU rugby friends, so we went to cheer them on! It was a super cold night, but we braved the weather and all sat close to keep warm. We won 66 to 20 against the University of Utah. BYU is number two in the nation behind UC Berkley (imagine that- GO CAL). We had fun watching a game we really knew/know nothing about, but it was exciting none the less. The other guy in the picture is Ben's roommate Bryan- we had fun singing the songs that were being played over the loud speaker!

Ninja Strike

Ben's friend Grant turned 23 the other day, we couldn't just give him a card like normal people, we had to put on our ninja attire, make shyurkens (chinese paper stars to attack with), and blitz his birthday party in progress. Ben was the lead ninja and led the group of 5 of us into mortal combat. We survived and so did the birthday boy. Earlier that day Ben taught me how to fold the paper stars, and I got a little too into it and could not stop my hands from folding. I'm now a professional and was sure to make one for each of my roommates. We stayed in our ninja gear for the dollar movie- yes we looked silly, and no we did not throw any stars at the ticket master.

How can I have some more if I haven't had any?

Like and good kid- we all remember those quotable moments from Sandlot. FOORREEVVEERR. Well last friday it was date night with the Apkens and Stephen and his friend Amy. We made 'smores up in the Canyon and enjoyed the neighboring asian group who played great music for us to dance to. The other highlight of the night was a group who were litterally practicing their lightsaber skills. Ben thought it would be funny to put a blanket over my head and pretend to be a Star Wars character, I did so and walked up to the practicing Jedi. They tapped me with their lightsaber (on accident I think) and didn't even acknowledge I was there. They were dead serious about their practice. It was hilarious!

she is adorable

Mackenzie makes the cutest faces.

Twinners

Amy is so kind and bought me an identical shirt to the one she bought. We arranged to wear them one of the days while in California. Well a funny thing happened- Brooklyn needed an extra pair of clothes after spilling on herself, so she borrowed some of Carlee's clothes and they got to be twinners too!

THE gun

Dad pulled out the big guns when meeting Ben. This was Dads chance to scare Ben with all of the many weapons we have in the house.... well I guess not, because Dad is smiling and these are all of the weapons we have in the house. The highlight was MY gun (yes- brother ben, it is MY gun). This is the gun I won at the ducks unlimited dinner before my mission (which has never been used). It is also known as the dowry gun- the lucky man who ties the knot with me, gets to have it. (Oh lucky him).

"It's your big day..."

Dad- after the birthday party listening to one of mom's cards. This one sang, so Dad wanted surround sound.

Salt Flats

For boys, the salt flats are

one of the coolest things in the world. Ben pretended to lick the salt. Ben and Cameron had a bonding moment on those salt flats. Who knows what they talked about, probably one of life's greatest mysteries... girls.

Palm Tree

Since I have spring fever, I decided to add a Palm tree to the blog. I am ready for spring and mostly ready for summer and to be able to go back to california again and see all those palm trees.

Rock Climin'

We are obviously not really climbing in this first picture, be we did really climb for 2 hours! Ben is a monkey and had fun climbing all over the indoor gym in Provo. We had a great two for one deal and plus I borrowed my roommates harness, so no rental needed. We went with Paul and Natalie (Paul is Ben's roommate and expert rock climber). After climbing we had free soda and dessert at the Tango House in celebration of their change of owners. We felt like we should buy more because they were giving us free stuff, so did we really save? Whatever happened we left there pretty happy about our outing!

Living Legends

Last night we went to see my friend from my mission perform in the BYU Latin/Native American/Polynesian group LIVING LEGENDS!!! Eva Bighorse served with me in Salta Argentina (she is from Santa Cruz, California) and is one of my favorite people in the world. We went to SubZero afterwards (where I can have soy icecream) with some of my mission companions and friends. Ben was such a great date and even did a mexican yell when the Mexican dancing went on! I think we were both meant to be a little darker than we are.

Valentines Day with Ben!

Lunch at "The Tango House" (Argentine Food). The first half of the day was planned by me. So ofcourse we ate the best food in the world! We ate so much food, and it was so fun to just relax and not be pressed for time. There were pictures up on the walls of streets I have been down in Argentina. The food was soooo good and tasted just like Argentina. We took home boxes of leftovers.

We drove for about 20 minutes in the snow, and then all of a sudden it stopped snowing and it was blue skies. It was amazing! Heavenly Father knew we didn't want to be driving in the snow. We got to Salt Lake and found a lady to take our picture. The funny thing is she was more particular about how the picture was taken than we were. She was quite professional about it! We need her to take all of our pictures! It was Ben's first time going to the Salt Lake Temple- so he was very excited and looked like a kid in a candy store! I love him!

After getting home from Salt Lake he needed an hour to get things ready, so I went home and he took off with my picnic table (from my car- yes Honda CRV's come with picnic tables). I watched some "Sweet Home Alabama" changed into some jeans and delivered some Valentines to friends. He came and picked me up and he smelt like food! I was hungry, so we jumped in the car and he drove us to campus. We had to find an open door first and once we did we walked up to a chemistry room where I had sacrament meeting all last year! It was so perfect! He had a table set up, with a fake fireplace dvd going on in the background that gave off just enough light! (I'm glad he is obedient and didn't have any flames in the room, even the candles were battery lit). He gave me a framed picture of us and a dozen red roses. Our perfect Valentines Day!!!!

Young Ambassadors

Saturday we went on a big triple date to see our favorite group- the Young Ambassadors! They are a music/dance group and perform tons of songs from Broadway. Ben would like to say he saw a witch (from Wicked of-course), she flew. Danielle and Matt were there, Joyce and Ben's roommate Jeremy were also there with us. It was a lot of fun and we had pretty close seats. We knew some of the performers - so that made it a lot more fun! Some of our favorite songs were- "New Philosophy" from Charlie Brown, "Take a Chance on Me" from ABBA, and "Sherrie" and oldies classic.

kid-sitting

Friday

night Ben and I babysat Cameron, the son of a friend of ours from work. Saturday we kept with the theme of babysitting and babysat my niece Brooklyn and my nephew Cameron. Don't let the pictures deceive you. Ben did his fair share of reading and dancing with Brooklyn as well as playing wii with Cameron. After playing we topped it off with dinner at CHUCKARAMA - my new favorite buffet. Ganel and Rob took us to dinner... I thought we were supposed to be helping them out by babysitting...they are so sweet to us.

Snowshoeing

We took off to the mountains! Ben was a great sport because the rest of the group was all girls. We had a great time hiking up a mountain and playing in the snow. So much fun!!!

Draper Temple Open House

Saturday Ben and I (along with Danielle, her husband and the recently baptized German and Cindy Rodriguez) went to the Draper Temple Open House. It was raining most of the day, but that did not damper the spirit that was felt. It was the neated feeling to be there with little kids (the Rodriguez kids) and new converts. I especially loved sharing that moment with great friends. The temple is an amazing place and the celestial room inside this temple has gotten special attention because of the incredibly high ceiling, gorgeous chandelier! I loved every moment! Perfect way to spend a saturday!

My Cake Creation

Every two weeks I cook for a dinner group of 10 people. The first night I cooked this semester I made a crazy cake roll. It is a chocolate cake, filled with homemade wipped cream, pecans, chocolate chips and marshmellows. On the outside is a cream cheese frosting with fresh raspberries and black berries. YUMMY!!!

Iron Chef

Check out the amazing culinary arts of Ben and Stacie. You got that right grilled avacados and fajitas. I've proclaimed us the winners, but then again we didn't really compete- it was a friendly competition. Good times!

my window

That's right. I sleep by that window you see. Can you see the frozen ice inside. My tired body lays right by that window. Talk about lame!!! Talk about cold!!! Well luckily it has warmed up recently and that window froze only once, but I took action and took pictures and sent them to the landlord. They have not fixed a cracked window in our appartment, nor the screen that is bent. Well i've had enough of landlords... I definately want to own my own house!

My 1 credit class- Public Health

I am taking an intro to public health class this semester. It is one of the two classess I am taking. The other class is a family history class. I know- tough life I lead. I am working 30 hours too by the way. Well this picture is an assignment for my class. We had to take this sticker and put it on something that is an example of public health. Since I don't like to litter, I didn't actually stick the sticker on, I just set it there for the picture. The picture is the plumbing of my kitchen sink. Amy I thought you would enjoy my creativity. I realize this exposes just how messy the area is under the kitchen sink, but that's ok. I can live with that. This is my public service announcement- BE GRATEFUL FOR CLEAN WATER!!!!! the end.

Carlee Ann

I think this is my favorite picture of dear sweet adorable Carlee Ann. We had a fun ride up to Danielle's parents house up in loma rica. It was our "special ride" and the cute girl ended up sleeping the whole way up there. She had fun playing with "Diego"- Ed's new dog. The excitment came while driving home. She accidently opened the door. It was hilarious, but she was so scared. I know- I should have been scared too, but luckily it wasn't that open, and I could still lock it so she wouldn't fall out. She held on to that door for dear life. I love her!!!

New Years 2009

This was one of the most random new years eve, but keeping with Sandra French's tradition of dancing in the new year- I did! Duardo and I went to a random spanish ward in Orem and danced until 1 am. It was so fun. There were kids and adults dancing all different types of latin dances. I had the best dancer as my partner, which made me look like I knew what I was doing. The funny part was when I walked in I realized I was the ONLY blonde in the whole building. I had some stares at first- usually white girls like me don't dance- well... I didn't stop! So fun!! When the new year came, I hugged random people and ofcourse got kisses on my cheek from them too- I love the hispanic culture!

Snowboarding with Cameron

Today was worth all of those times I have fallen on the mountain. I finally got to teach someone in my own family about something that I've really tried hard at. My 11 year old nephew Cameron learned how to snowboard! He was amazing! I was impressed and even though he said "I stink" I want the world to know "He rocked!"

Lights at Temple Square

A group of us from the ward went to Temple Square for an activity to see the lights. We braved the freezing cold and drank our hot choclate out of the back of my car using my picnic table to set up the treats. Yes CRV's HAVE PICNIC TABLES!!! I love hondas.

Catalina, dear sweet Catalina

I think Amys kids are some of the funniest ones I know. They definately have a sense of humor. This thanksgiving break I got to witness that first hand. Here is Catalina enjoying the swing and climbing up the jungle gym. She amazed me that she could do everything all the other kids could. I think it was hilarious when some of the kids when into the "pee-pee" slide (as we called it when we were younger, but Amy still labels it the same way). Amy was so disgusted I think she didn't even want to touch the kids...haha. I love her!!! I love Nava Adventures!