FIRST SNOW OF THE YEAR!

It snowed for the first time this year last night... Of course I'm excited because you always are when it snows for the first time, however, I'm very glad that it is already melting and that there isn't anything but sunny skies in the forecast for the next week. Winter and I don't get along very well so I'm happy to have it say hello but it better not start sleeping on my couch just yet! Hope you all are well! XOXO

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

It was my 27th birthday yesterday! (October 12) The day of my birthday I worked and had a party with the girls at the salon. We ordered CPK and Merrily brought yummy peanut butter bars and Tiffany brought homemade salsa. (I hope I didn't forget to give props to any other food people. Sorry if so.) It was a lot of fun. I felt so loved! I got lots of fun stuff from the girls and I had a blast!
Shay had to work 18 hours yesterday so it was so wonderful to be able to have a little party at work. Since he had to work so late I spent my evening cleaning and grocery shopping. I actually was really happy to do that stuff. I'd been meaning to and I felt productive! (Who in their right mind does that on their birthday?!) So I opened some of my presents on Friday night and Saturday we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner with his parents and more presents.
Shay gave me some awesome presents and flowers. My favorites from him are THE NEW BLANKIE! (If you know me you know that my blankie never leaves my hands when I'm home and occasionally I'll take it with me to someones house. HAHAHA! It's my security blanket!) My other favorite is from him and Kelly (his sis). They went in on a G.C. to Sanctuary Day Spa in Sandy. I can't wait to go somewhere and be treated like a REAL client. There's no way they will know I do hair and I hope they don't ask what I do. (I'll probably have to lie if they do...)
My mom and dad sent me some cute decorations for my house and some moola, and Shay's parents gave me this really nice purse and a couple G.C. to the University Mall. It was a wonderful birthday weekend and I'm sad it's over. Thank you so much to everyone who left me birthday wishes and I love you all! Have a great weekend. xoxo D

HAWAII

We left Wednesday September 12, 2007 and flew from Salt Lake to Phoenix, Phoenix to Honolulu, and then Honolulu to Li hue (Kauai). The flight from Phoenix to Honolulu was torture. It was so small and cramped and the plane was so old there were ashtrays in the armrests still! It went smoothly, but, after what felt like 14 hours and was only 6.5 hours I wanted OFF! HeeHee. Ugh, it was not my favorite part of the trip.

Then we drove to our condo and went to bed.

This was the view from our balcony...

The next morning while the fam was at the Monk Monastery Shay and I wandered around the beach by our "home" and had some fun digging crabs out of their homes aka holes in the sand.

Friday we all went on a helicopter tour of the island. It was amazing and so beautiful. I did really good on that ride until we flew over the ocean. For some reason that made me have a panic attack. Luckily I've been able to learn a lot more about my "disorder" and it wasn't very bad and went away very quickly. I am so glad I went and would totally go again! I loved it.

Saturday everyone but I went and did a zip line course. I thought I would never be able to be that high attached to a metal rope but after i saw the pictures and videos I wish I had gone. However, the pool was awesome. (the first picture...)

Everyone got back later and showered and got ready to go to this yummy restaurant, The Beach House. It was about an hour and a half drive so we were super hungry. We got to sit by the walls (which open to a view of the ocean) and we got there just in time for the sunset. I loved eating in Kauai, I had fish everyday! It was so good and fresh. I ate Marlin, Mahi Mahi, raw Tuna, Salmon from New Zealand... Yum. I loved the food. Sunday we were all supposed to go on a hike but we decided to just have a lazy day instead. I just went to the pool that day and then later in the afternoon we went to Tunnels Beach to try and snorkel. That didn't work so well for me. I've never done it before so it wasn't my forte. Also, the bottom of the ocean we were walking on and swimming over was all coral reef so I kept getting hurt. I played a little bit in the water but spent most of my time in the shade. I really did not want to get sunburned, I wore SPF 45 and reapplied every hour or so but I still could tell I'd received my fair share of sun that day.

On our final day before we left, Monday, Shay and his father went on the hike and Jared, Kelly, and I went to Queens Bath. OOOHHH I LOVED this place. Queens Bath is ocean water trapped making a pool. It was 8 feet deep and I could see through to the bottom. It was so cool, I could see the tropical fish swimming around my legs and on the hike there we saw tons of sea turtles swimming around. I wish I'd gone there earlier in our trip and then gone back a few times. It was my favorite. While Shay was on his hike this huge centipede ran in front of him on the trail! He barely got it in the picture. (It's on the left side in the grass.) After their hike they went to Ke'e Beach and snorkeled. Shay got to swim with some sea turtles. They were all around him so he grabbed onto two of their shells and they all swam around together! I'm jealous. :)

We found this nasty Cane spider in the bathroom. The angle the picture makes it look smaller than it was. It was 4 inches from one tip of the leg to the other. YUCK! We caught it in a cup and then flushed it down the toilet, but the dang thing kept trying to climb out of the toilet while the water was spinning down. Luckily it finally went down. I have video but I yell the S word in it so watch out...

I will have you know I didn't get sunburned, I finally acheived my goal of WARM IVORY. However, Shay got fried. He peeled TWICE!

Our departure day, Tuesday, 3 am rolled around much too fast. We had to get up to leave for the airport to go back to crappy, cold Utah. ;) wink wink. That was an adventure also! Our flight left Honolulu to LAX and I fell asleep immediately. Then I wake up and see Shay yanking off his IPOD headphone and listening to the speakers so I did the same and the captain is telling us "we should be landing shortly and switching planes. We'll try to do this as smoothly as we can and we apologize for the inconvenience." WHAT! What's going on? Shay says "they've been circling the island for about an hour now." He apparently didn't want to wake me up and tell me this, VERY SMART OF HIM, cuz he didn't want to agitate me. I'm freaking out, I keep looking out the window expecting to see the wing (we were sitting over it) fly off, and then I was praying, OK Lord, if it's my time to go please make it fast and painless! At least we'll all go together... Me, the drama queen, but I had every right to be so! Apparently after 20 min. of flying it became apparent to the captain that some air bleed valve was broken and we can't fly at the proper elevation with out it. So he turned around and we circled the island for over and hour wasting fuel so we could land. The captain was doing "tricks" with the plane. He was going up and down and making the plane bank sideways-ish. Oh my goodness I was glad I took a Dramamine! Anyhow, we finally landed and I cried and then we got on the other plan and made to LA way later than planned so we missed our flight. We were able to make another flight, barely. We had 30 min. to get to the terminal, check in, go through security and get the the gate. To top it off, they searched everyone of us and our carry-ons. We made it though and the coolest part of that day was meeting Shaun White aka "The Flying Tomato". He won gold in the Olympics under the snowboarding competition and is very good at skating also. He was on our flight heading to Salt Lake for the Dew Tour. So after we got off the plane I got a picture of Him and Shay. He was really cool about it. I'd hate to have people asking for my picture and autograph everywhere I go! So nice of him.

Finally we wait and wait and wait for our luggage. Alas, no luggage. We assume it's still at LAX, report it and go home. I was so glad to be home. I was sad to leave but I had an amazing time and hope you didn't go crazy reading my novel! Here are some leftover pictures...

Shay caught these Horsefly sized frogs.

Back from Hawaii

This is not the BIG post I have planned to do for this trip because I'm too burned out to do it right now. I'll do it later. We got back at 1am this morning after a hellish day of travelling. Our plane from Honolulu to LAX ended up just flying in circles around the island for over an hour trying to burn and dump enough fuel to land again because some valve wasn't working right. Consequence; we missed our connecting flight in LAX to SLC. We finally arrived in SLC and discovered that our luggage never made it and we still don't know where it is. Needless to say, SUCKY! But on a positive note, I HAD AN AMAZING TIME! I'm sad to be home and not there anymore but at the same time, it feels so good to be home. It was a ton of fun and we have lots and lots of pictures. Keep watching for the HAWAII blog.

TAG, YOU'RE IT!

The Game of Tag
1. Who is your man? Shay, aka Shayken
2. How long have you been together? Almost 2 1/2 years. (1 1/2 years married)
3. How long dated? We dated 10 months before we got married
4. How old is your man? 27
5. Who eats more? HIM
6. Who said "I love you" first? He did. =)
7. Who is taller? He totally is!
8. Who sings better? Well after all the training I've had I'd say I do, but my talent has declined over the years so in truth we are probably on the same level of horrible! LOL!
9. Who is smarter? Who knows, probably me! HEEHEE
10. Who's temper is worse? MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11. Who does the laundry? Both of us. He usually starts them and one of us ends up folding them.
12.Who takes out the garbage? Shay would say I never take out the garbage but I can count on my hand at least 4 or 5 times...
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? What way are you looking at the bed? On it, I do. Looking at it straight on, he does.
14. Who pays the bills? I do. Once in awhile he does. I'd say it's the same answer as #12 but reversed.
15. Who is better with the computer? Me? We're probably the same.
16. Who mows the lawn? HOORAY FOR US! NO LAWN!
17. Who cooks dinner? Some restaurant. I try to cook dinner and it never works out and then I'm embarrassed and feel like a bad wife so we usually eat out. I'm great at boxed dinners though! Mac and Cheese anyone?
18. Who drives when you are together? If we take his car he drives, if we take mine, I drive.
19. Who pays when you go out? It all comes out of the same checking account, but usually I grab my wallet first. And I would leave much better tips if he would let me.
20. Who is most stubborn? ME! sigh... I think I have some things to work on. WAIT! No I don't. I'm perfect!
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I think we are about even on that one. But I think he's better at it.
22. Whose parents do you see the most? HIS
23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me. He would've kissed me the day we met but I told him I didn't want him too cuz I didn't know him. So he waited till we knew each other 3 days. HAHAHA!!!
24. Who asked who out? Neither of us. His friends wife (who are also my clients...) talked me into going out with them that night. Boy am I glad she did.
25. Who proposed? He did, at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The story is in my Vegas blog if you're interested.
26. Who is more sensitive? We're both pretty sensitive, but I get my feelings hurt over anything.
27. Who has more friends? I would say I do. Mostly cuz I know way more people through doing their hair.
28. Who has more siblings? I do. By one. He has one sister, I have one brother and one sister.
29. Who wears the pants in the family? Sigh, who knows. I don't.

Now I have to tag 3 people so, Cort, Kory, and Rylee. No big deal if you don't play along, but it's kinda fun! LOVE YA!

Reminiscing

I was looking at all my friends various pages tonight. (Blogs, Myspace) Guess what I discovered? I miss everyone! I haven't seen so many people I love for such a long time! Life gets crazy and I get so caught up in the day to day routine. Just thought I'd take a moment to let you all know I love you and miss you! See ya soon! XOXO, D

P.S. Shay went camping with the guys last weekend and here is one of my favorite pictures he took of where they camped. Hopefully it brings some peace and calm into your day! =)

I'M BURSTING!

Oh my gosh! I finally finished Eclipse and I'm bursting! I'm dying! It's ridiculous how a book can make me feel exactly how the characters do. I laughed, I cried, I worried... I barely can contain myself. I know there are people who don't care much for this series but I cannot detach myself from it. Someone please help me! HAHAHA

ECLIPSE!

Eclipse was released today and even though I have not had time to go buy it I can't wait to read it! I got to touch it at the salon today and I shivered... I know, CRAZY DESTINY. So what, I love me! It's nice to have things to be excited about. Hope all of you that are reading it now are loving it. Serves me right for teasing you about knowing how Harry Potter ends the day it came out. HA! XOXO

OUR TRIP TO VEGAS!

We went to Las Vegas this past weekend and had so much fun. We decided to go see KA, by Cirque du Soleil at the MGM Grand and it was amazing. It was the first time either of us had been to a show in Vegas. The last time we went to Vegas together was in November of 2005 when we got engaged. Needless to say it was much needed and a blast! We left Thursday night and stayed in St. George, UT at my friend Tanya's, she just had a baby so it was a lot of fun to see them. Then Friday we drove the rest of the way to Vegas and we checked into the MGM. It was a really cool room, it had a TV in the bathroom mirror, these crazy glass doors that opened up to reveal the toilet on the left side and the shower on the right, and the bed was so comfortable I honestly didn't want to leave. Too bad check out comes so early! Anyhow, Saturday night we stayed at my friend Mindy's house. We had a lot of fun just relaxing and doing some shopping. Well, sorry this blog is so long. Here's some pictures!

This is the ceiling at the Bellagio.
This is a video of the gardens they have at the Bellagio. They change it every season and it is unbelievable the amount of work that must go into it. Every time I've been there it looks ENTIRELY different. This video is mostly of the water jumping around but at one point I pan over to where Shay proposed to me. I had never seen the inside of the Bellagio so he took me there after he took me on a Gondola ride at the Venetian. We were just looking around and he said, "What's that over there?" So I turned and looked and he had the ring in the box open behind me. Then he got on his knee and asked me to marry him. Then we hugged and he put the ring on my finger and everyone that was watching clapped and cheered. It was so cute! It was fun to see the area again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bresWtNSqu4
This is a picture of Shay standing by a car that was on display at the Bellagio.

Me in front of the landscape at the Wynn. That is a BEAUTIFUL hotel.

Shay in front of the Wynn waterfalls.
Sleepy Lions at the MGM. I think it's neat that we can see such exotic creatures so close, but I feel like they are asleep all the time! Could it be they are depressed from the captivity? Shay standing by the Sphinx at the Luxor. He was hoping to run into Criss Angel. No luck!See, he loves Criss Angel... this is one of his motorcycles on display.Here's a video of our hotel room at the MGM. It was so cool. Very "modern. "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgvOIRZICKE

Hope you enjoyed! Love ya much! Destiny

Vegas!

HOORAY! The countdown is on. We leave for Vegas in 4 days!