Happy New Year!

From our little "family"

Squash Creme Brulee

One of the best parts about moving back to Iowa has been being able to spend time with my best friend from high school, Elyse.  We have had a lot of fun adventures already.  Last Saturday we took trip to Des Moines to go to the "big" mall here in Iowa to go shopping and see a movie.  We have found some great places to eat in Cedar Rapids, too, but because that isn't enough, we have also been baking up a storm.  Earlier in the month we had an apple baking day and made caramel apple tarts and baked apples.  This weekend, however, we decided to try our hand at squash creme brulee to try out Elyse's new creme brulee kit, small blow torch included :)

Go Hawkeyes!

Neil and I went to our first ever Big Ten football game last night, courtesy of some free tickets from Neil's MBA program.  We had so much fun and were thrilled that Iowa beat Northwestern!

So I basically missed the entire summer . . .

But, we had lots of fun.

We went to Iowa for my cousin's wedding in June.  The only picture I took was this one of Neil eating a fresh donut in Kalona.  My parents took us up to the cheese factory there and we couldn't resist going to the town bakery.

The wedding was beautiful and it was good to see extended family.   I was super sick, no surprises there,  and so pictures were not so much a priority.  It was a low-key trip, especially compared to our last visit in April, but that was just perfect.

Over the 4th of July weekend, Emily's friend Heather came to visit from Colorado.  We went up to Park City and rode the longest gondola ever (I kid you not), went shopping, and watched the fireworks at Sugar House park.  We also ate way too much and watched approximately a million old episodes of Project Runway.  Here we all are at the Riverwoods after going to see Midnight in Paris and before going out for sushi.

Towards the end of July we took a road trip to the Grand Canyon and then Zion's.  Our friend Dave drove down to the Grand Canyon with us and it was seriously the most fun I have had in a long time. We just spent one day at Grand Canyon before meeting the rest of our group in St. George.  With everyone together, we hiked the narrows at Zion, which was an absolute blast, and so beautiful.  It was good to have one last hurrah with everyone before we each went our own way for school.

And then it was August.  Neil's brother Joel came to visit us to help us pack up and drive to Iowa.  Neil took Joel and I to a Real Salt Lake game since both Neil and Joel have recently become very interested in soccer.  Everyone at the stadium was really into it, so it was fun to watch.

My parents also flew to Utah straight from Omaha to help us drive both our cars plus the moving truck.  And why were they in Nebraska?  Well, my sister was in the National Czech-Slovak pageant there representing Utah.  She did awesome and was 2nd runner up.  Here she is in her kroi.

Anyway, we had so much help cleaning and loading the truck and driving.  Thank you, thank you, thank you! The drive to Iowa was a lot less traumatic than anticipated.  The cats were amazing and didn't even need their sedatives.  We are really all settled in now and everything is going well.  Neil loves his classes and classmates, and I am really loving being with my family, immediate and extended.

Finally, last week Neil celebrated his 29th birthday.  He requested a banana cake and Red Lobster, so that's what we did.   He got a new soccer jersey and lots of nice, new dress clothes from both of our parents.  A good birthday, all in all.

April

April has been a busy, busy month!

We celebrated Amy's birthday with a fun dinner and chocolate fudge cake.

We celebrated Easter as our little Utah family: Neil, Emily, and I

Before we leave Utah, Neil and I want to see all the sights.  We drove down to Moab for a few days to go to beautiful Arches National Park.

And drove another 45 minutes to go to the Monticello, Utah temple because we are also trying to visit all of the Utah temples, too.  We have a long way to go.

This weekend we went to Iowa for a very (too) short trip for Tippie MBA Advance weekend.  We met some new friends and started our housing search in Iowa City.  Ofcourse we had to visit the Dairy Queen up the street from my house for some cherry cones.

Hopefully the next 3 months will go just as fast!

Weekend Fun

Last weekend Neil took a little trip to Las Vegas with his buddies to go to the Mountain West Conference championship.  He did fun things like watch basketball at the stadium, watch basketball on tv, and watch basketball at the ESPN zone in his own private lounging chair (picture courtesy of Ryan).  Basically a perfect weekend for Neil.

Meanwhile, I made my sister come over for the weekend and stay with me so I wouldn't have to be alone.  We painted our toe nails,went shoe shopping, paid a visit to Les Madeleines in SLC to get macaroons, ate those macaroons while watching Coco Before Chanel, attended a pilates class (that ended up being a yoga class), made breakfast strata, tried out Pizzeria 712 (way too cool for us), and ended with the cazookie at The Chocolate.  A very successful girls' weekend if I do say so myself.

Pretty Kitty

Every morning while I put makeup on, Callie sits right by me on the bathroom counter, stares at me, and tries to steal my brushes.  Today I was using some hot pink MAC pigment on my lips and while I was applying it with my brush a little bit fell on the counter.  Callie took full advantage of this and decided that we would match today.  She dipped her face into the small amount of pigment with remarkable aim and this was the result   . . . .


So preeeeetty