Easter

St. George

My trip to St. George was fabulous! I left on Monday, the 17th and travelled all day, three different flights to get there. I arrived at 9:00 pm. Shana picked me up at the airport and the fun began! We stopped on the way home to pick up a few groceries for the week and then went on to the beautiful vacation home she and her husband own there in St. George. We talked a little but went to be pretty early so we could get a good start to the next day.

Tuesday morning we had a tennis lesson with an amazing tennis pro/instructor named Dave Smith. He was really great and I feel like I learned a lot in just three short days. The lessons were outdoors and the weather was beautiful! We had our lesson and then Shana and I played against each other a little bit. She beat me every time we played--she's definately better than I am, but it was still so much fun! We were trying to be healthy so after tennis we went home and ate a big spinache salad and then headed to the spa for a two-hour couples massage. Talk about Heaven! It was definately the best massage I've ever had! After that we came home and rested for awhile, got dressed up, and went to a really nice restaurant called the Painted Pony for dinner. It was a good thing we ate a healthy lunch, because we didn't do so well for dinner. We shared a delicious brie appetizer, and then I had a super tender steak with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, and broccolli for dinner. We topped it all off with some amazing banana bread pudding. Then we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and went home to begin watching Pride and Prejudice (the long version), which I had been reading but had not yet finished.

Wednesday morning started with a healthy breakfast and tennis at 9:30. We played for almost three hours, got a little sunburned, and then stopped at a fresh Mexican restaurant on the way home for a yummy Mexican salad. We watched some more of the movie and then went shopping at the outlet mall in the afternoon. We found Shana a couple of spring dresses since she didn't have one actual dress in her whole closet, and bought some cute things for the kids at Gymboree. We stopped at a sandwich cafe for dinner and treated ourselves to Cold Stone Creamery on the way home where we watched a little more Pride and Prejudice and went to bed.

Thursday morning began much like the others. Tennis from 9:00 until 12:00, and then we hit another Mexican restaurant for lunch. By this point most of our healthy aspirations were out the window, and we shared a quesadilla and a HUGE basket of nachos which we could hardly even put a dent in. Then we headed to the spa again, this time for a sports massage and facial. The sports massage was awsome, but somehow I had scheduled a body scrub instead of a facial for my second treatment. I really wasn't interested in the body scrub so they let me cancel it, and I went outside and layed on the grass in the sun for the next hour while Shana got her second treatment. It was so nice and relaxing--I think I even fell asleep for a little while. That night we ate at a really yummy local pizza place and then finished watching Pride and Prejudice, which we both loved.

sans make-up on the way home from the spa--yikes!

Friday morning we got up early and went to the 8:00 session at the temple. We had time for a quick breakfast, a short drive up the hill to the red rocks where we took some pictures, and then it was off to the airport to drop me off. It was such a wonderful, relaxing trip, and so much fun to spend time with Shana! She's one of those amazing people who just inspires you to be a better person. I can't wait for our next trip!

Catching Up!

It's been so long since my last blog I guess I have some catching up to do! February was a busy month for us. It started out quite normal, but then got crazy just in time for Valentine's Day. Jordan's Grandpa Nielsen passed away on the 10th, and Jordan was asked to give the eulogy at his funeral. So he flew out to California on the 13th (Wed.) and was able to spend the weekend through Sunday with his family there. I heard he did a wonderful job with the eulogy and actually learned a lot about his grandfather in the process. I was really happy for him that he could go and have that bonding time with his family.

Meanwhile, we had invited a few kids from church and school over for a Valentine's party on the 13th. We didn't invite a ton of kids, 7 total, so I thought it would be pretty easy and low-key and planned to do the party by myself. Luckily one of the other mom's ended up staying, 'cause boy did I underestimate the challenges of throwing a party for 11 kids age 8 and under! We played some relay and other games with balloons and decorated Valentine cookies. The kids had a blast!

A few days after Jordan got back, his parents came to visit for few days. We always love it when they come, and the kids adore spending lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa Post. However, their mother was a slacker and didn't take any pictures, so she'll have to make up for it with lots of pictures when we visit G&G in California this summer.

With February already over, Jordan and I made a plan to go to the temple on Saturday. We are in the Oklahoma City temple district, so it takes us a full 3 1/2 hours to get to the temple (not to mention about $8 in tolls) That's just one way, so we usually make a whole day of it. We left our house at 6:00am, drove straight to the temple, and finished at the temple at about 12:30pm. Then we went to eat at Macaroni Grill (one of favorite places) and stopped at a mall on the way home as well. When we got back into town we went straight to Stake Conference where we heard some great messages about marriage and family, and we finally got home at around 9:30pm. Although we did a lot of sitting, Jordan and I had a great time, and I really enjoyed spending the entire day with my husband. It's rare that we have that much time together, without interruptions from children, and that time helps me remember what a fun, intelligent, entertaining, and loveable husband I have.

Alright, so now it's March, and my much-anticipated trip to St. George is only 12 days away! I'm meeting my college friend, Shana, there and we have lots of fun stuff planned. We're going to take a few tennis classes, go to the spa, shop, eat yummy food, watch chic-flicks, sit in the hot tub, and just relax (if there's any time left for that)! Because I'm flying out of a rather small airport into another small airport I have several layovers making for about a day of travel each way, so I'm needing some suggestions on books to take along with me. What have you been reading lately? I'm also open to suggestions on movies that Shana and I should rent while we're there. The only one on my list so far is Casablanca--let me know what you recommend!

Bonus picture