(Continued.)

Alright, now to finish off the events of September and catch up on what's been going on in October...
Here goes nothing.

Some fun things we did in September include seeing Mindy Gledhill at the Velour and (almost) participating in the World's Largest Scavenger Hunt.

Mindy was a super energetic performer with some goofy dance moves, but she has an amazing voice and Christopher has loved her since like forever.

The rabbit is supposedly Ryan Innes.

On September 13th, Provo put on this HUGE scavenger hunt event called the Passport to Provo. The scavenger hunt tasks were everything from snapping a photo with a local landmark to sampling a product at a local restaurant. It sounded like a blast! We wanted to do it, but we all ended up working on Saturday and all members of your team had to be present at the start of the event. Bummer. But, surprise, surprise! I was actually working the after party event at the Convention Center. So, between my connections and Christopher's connections to the Google Fiber people running the after party, we were able to get our friends in for the free food and music as well as snag some pretty cool shirts!

This is the official-looking
Guinness World Record lady.
She's a party animal.

The Guinness World Record people were at the after party, counting the number of Provo "passports" (scavenger hunt lists) to determine if the number of people in attendance broke the previous record. As it turns out, Provo more than doubled that number, completely destroying the old record. The previous record was 924 people and they had 2,079 people participate. Google Fiber put on a crazy cool party with a DJ and then Ryan Innes (a local singer who was on The Voice) performing and the Convention Center provided some awesome food munchies. (btw, preparing all those sodas was a pain in the butt.)




The best part though, was that I got to cut this EPIC cake!






The end of September ended up being the most exciting for us. Although I had many tests and Christopher had a lot of homework, we made sure we still got to hang out with friends so we wouldn't go stir crazy.
Monday September 22^nd was the start of Kolby’s Birthweek. We wanted to make sure this year's birthday was awesome for him, so we started the week off by getting Virgin Drinks at Los Hermanos. That, and chips and queso. Best sort of snack ever.
Tuesday September 23^rd We went to our favorite sushi place, Kyoto. They always have buy one get one deals on sushi rolls so it's really just the best.

Wednesday September 24^th I worked until 10pm at the Info Desk, so Ash and Kolbs grabbed Sodalicious and were going to meet us here. My mom actually surprised me by coming to the Wilk too! She decided to visit the same time my dad would be at BYU recruiting. I don't know if Kolby's Birthweek was good for him, but it was good for me! I love when my parents come visit!!

Thursday September 25^th we rented not one, but TWO puppies from the rent-a-puppy organization. I LOVE PUPPIES!! (This was also the day of the epic Costco trip I took with my mom. I love her.)

Surprise from the Parents :)

Friday September 26^th my dad promised us dinner, so we went to Tucanos. This is starting to become a tradition and I don't know if my belly can handle it! It was so dang good though, and the first time mom and Cody had been there. The rest of the family was pretty much out of commission for the rest of the night after that, so Christopher and I went to hang out with our friends in the woods and play Slenderman. It was terrifying, especially because it was drizzly and dark. We gave ourselves a good scare and sang to Kolby at midnight because it marked the start of his actual birthday :)

Saturday September 27^th – Kolby’s Birthday – Once Kolby got back to Provo, we had cake and presents at his apartment.
After that we went to Barb and Larry’s and hang out and play games and use their projector for movies and Mario Kart.

Sunday September 28th my parents went to church with Christopher and I. That was interesting because it was the first time since we moved into the new apartment that we actually went to our new ward. It was also funny because it was a Married Student Ward, so my parents might have felt a little out of place. Christopher and I are still trying to get used to the new ward.

Monday September 29^th My parents left, so that was sad for me. L

WOO!!! I FINALLY CAUGHT UP ON SEPTEMBER!!
Now for a quick synopsis of what's been going on in October and I'll let you all be on your way.

Friday October 3^rd we saw Neon Trees in Downtown Provo for the Free Rooftop Concert Series. So fun! I only know all their old music, but the new stuff was pretty catchy too! I didn't get any good pictures because we were pretty far back, but Cody got pretty close when he was swept away by the randoms who started off next to us.

Tradition!!

Saturday October 4^th was General Conference. I had to take a test, but after that I watched what was left of conference with Ashleigh (I don't have internet or cable at my house). I had to deal with some microbiology lab results for class between sessions, then we (me, Ash, and Cody) watched the afternoon session at Ashleigh's apartment too. We all went to SLC so the boys could go to priesthood session. Ash and I went shopping at City Creek Mall (like every other woman in SLC). Christopher had a mission reunion after that, so Kolby, Ashleigh, Cody and I went to get dinner at Chipotle (A tradition for Cody after Priesthood session). I always love any excuse to go to Salt Lake City. It's where I got engaged after all :)

Sunday October 5^th We watched the morning session at Kolby's apartment and ate Coffee Cake (tradition!). For the Afternoon Session we played our usual version of Conference Bingo ;)
Fun times had all around. We got pretty sugar high too.


Saturday October 12^th I got a couple inches cut off my hair - about time! - and we decorated our house for Halloween! I am literally beyond excited that we have a porch!!

Before our bike got stolen....

We installed a black light on our porch too.
Looks creepy, doesn't it?

(Tuesday October 21st I got sued, but that's not exciting.)
Wednesday October 23rd we carved pumpkins, so now our house is officially festive! We made pumpkin seeds of course. All about those traditions.

This is how the pumpkins looked the first day.

Mine.

Christopher's.

This is how they looked after a couple days...

Doesn’t seem that busy, but school projects and tests all the time…. Ugh.

BUT, now we're caught up! Hopefully I'll be better about this when we FINALLY get internet on October 30th. SO. EXCITED.

ta-ta for now.

It's Funny How Things Work...

I have now successfully fallen behind on two months of blogging. Give me a break though, it’s been a crazy ride.

Here's what's been going on:

Tuesday August 12^th we went to the Monumentour concert.

We waited in line hours early and weren't even the first people there.

It was an amazing concert though!

Hayley Williams is quite the performer, and Fall Out Boy had a ton of pyrotechnics and lights to enhance their show.

So mind-blowing! 

Christopher loved it :)

Christopher was all tuckered out the day after.

Monday August 25th we started the day off by checking Cody into his apartment at Glenwood. I took a "proud mom" photo to make up for my mom not actually being there. It's okay, Cody's a big boy. 

Cody is so ready to live like a freshman!

After this, we went to Lagoon because America First has some pretty sweet hook-ups and rented out the whole park for a day just for employees. Completely free for us which was awesome because tickets are like $60 per person. Lagoon is Utah's tribute to theme parks. It was super fun. We managed to go on all the rides once and the awesome ones twice (or more). Here's a photo of Ashleigh and Kolby on a ride that shot you up tons and tons of feet into the air suspended in this ball-type thing. I think it was called the Slingshot. People like this one because there's a camera on that ball contraption that films people's faces the entire time they're being shot into the air and bouncing around. It's pretty hilarious. 

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The next weekend was pretty eventful for us. Right before school was about to start, we found out our apartment complex was raising our rent if we wanted to resign. Between the $720 per month they were going to charge us and the awkward timing of our contract ending in October, we decided to bail and sell our contract which meant we had to try to find something else before school started. We didn't have much time...

Saturday August 30th was devoted completely to checking out potential apartments. The first couple we looked at were horrible. One was a teeny basement apartment that was barely taller than my head. Also it smelled like cat pee. Definitely no. Luckily, we found a quirky yellow house that the Asian landlord was desperately trying to fill. We put our apartment up on KSL on Sunday night, determined to move before school started. 30 minutes after posting the contract, a couple called us to check out our apartment that night. They ended up buying our contract (we had a handful of other interested people call about it too).

We went back to the yellow house on Monday (Labor Day). The landlord told us that he had people coming to look at the apartment right after us, so we jumped on the opportunity, and signed the contract. We went to get a check for the deposit and when we returned, the landlord told us he had turned the other couple away, so we barely beat them out for the apartment.

Empty Cambridge Court Apartment. Sad Day.

Tuesday we moved everything out of our apartment at Cambridge Court. The sooner we moved out of there, the more likely it was that we would get our September rent refunded completely (which we did!) This was a little stressful, because this was actually the first day of school. We managed to move everything completely out of the Cambridge Court Apartment and into the yellow house all in one evening.

The yellow house is a little quirky. It's definitely old and the previous tenants decided to use oil based paints on all the door frames and window moldings. Dark forest green in the living room and the bedroom and dark blue in the kitchen. Because of this, the apartment looks even darker and creepier inside. But hey! rent is $150 cheaper per month, so we're going with it. Plus, the landlord seems to be pretty easygoing and has worked with to fix the bathroom - he replaced the flooring. Additionally, he says we can repaint as long as he provides the proper painting equipment. Fine by me.

Here are some photos of the new place:

 

   

Kitchen. Look at that blue!

Bedroom. It's kinda teeny.

It's a work in progress, but the yellow house is growing on us.

I'll catch up more blog writing tomorrow. 

July: The Crazy Month that Passed in a Blur.

I've kind of fallen off the grid this past month. At least I'm sure that's what my ward thinks, seeing as how I haven't been to church there in the past five weekends. They tried to introduce me as a visitor this past Sunday....

So here's what's been going on:

(I'm going to list events by date since that's the easiest)

June 29th - Park City - My friends and I had planned a weekend getaway to Park City, because why not? It was a grand adventure where we spent our nights on the town and our days at the market. Super, super fun. A breakdown of the weekend is as follows:

Park City, Home of the Moose

Saturday we arrived at Park City. After walking around Main Street and feeling like underdressed tourists, we got dinner at Collie's Sports Bar & Grill where we all tried the Warzone Burger. It was a deliciously thick burger topped with bacon, guacamole and onion rings. What more could you want! After this, we checked in at The Yarrow Hotel. We wanted to go bowling, but couldn't find the bowling alley since it had apparently gone out of business even though the website was still up and running. So instead, we went to the grocery store for popcorn and rolos (try them together!), then got back to the hotel and watched Space Jam, jumped on the bed, got yelled at by management. It was a pretty typical Saturday night.

Like father, like son?

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early so we could check out of the hotel on time. After this, we went to church - the closest building was 20 minutes away and almost everyone left after sacrament! I've a feeling we aren't in Provo anymore, Toto. Following sacrament meeting, we drove back to Main Street to check out the Silly Sunday Market where we got some AMAZING bread that we munched on for breakfast. Then it was time for the Olympic Park Aerial Show where off season ski jumpers launched themselves down the smaller ramps and did some amazing flips into the pools below. It was way cool.

Check out those ramps!

We returned to Park City Mountain Resort (I know, I know. We drove back and forth like twelve times. But everything was time sensitive!) to ride the Alpine Coaster and the Alpine Slide. I heard they were pretty rickety so I was getting pretty sketched out. I had convinced myself I didn't want to go after the lady in the ticket line was being all pushy trying to sell us package deals.

Moose Statues EVERYWHERE.

After some Dippin Dots to cool me down (the first time I've ever had them!) we went for the deal and had a grand time racing each other down the side of the mountain. I'm glad I was bullied into it ;) Eventually, we were running out of things to do, so we hit up the Outlet Malls before they closed and then went to dinner at the Wasatch Brewery (as recommended by my father-in-law for their fish and chips - He was right! They were dang good!). By the end of this weekend that seemed to span two weeks, I was completely sunburned and broke, broke, broke! Definitely worth it.

July 3rd - We drove up to Logan right after work to spend the Fourth of July with Kolby's family. Mama Falor had hot dogs and snack food all ready for us when we arrived. Immediately following stuffing our faces, we watched some fireworks at a safe (and uncrowded) distance. We decided that the fireworks made us thirsty and went to Walmart to buy every flavor of Mountain Dew. When we got back, we decided to watch Cat in the Hat (the one with Mike Meyers). I promptly fell asleep because movies are like lullabies to me nowadays. The rest of the gang apparently stayed up talking late into the night, but I was dead to the world.

'Murica

YUM.

July 4th - Logan - We woke up pretty early so we could have breakfast and get to Kolby's grandparents' house before the parade started. After we ate and before we left, we dyed Christopher's beard, a strip of Ashleigh's hair, and the underlayer of my hair blue. We also donned our fabulous Fourth of July shirts from Walmart. We were ready to celebrate America! The parade was pretty fun, seeing as how parades were never a big thing in my childhood (either because its too hot to do anything in Arizona or because my dad hates crowds, I'll never know.).

The conclusion of the parade meant that it was time for a HUGE potluck lunch and Grandpa Long's famous homemade root beer! I drank so much. It was hot outside, and the party was dying down, so we decided to go back to Kolby's parents' place and go swimming. The final event planned for this patriotic day was to shoot off more fireworks at Kolby's sister's house. Her son totally fell in love with me and now I'm pretty sure we're best friends because I played dinosaurs with him non-stop. Little kids are fun :)

July 5th - Provo and Lindon - We drove back to Provo bright and early so Ashleigh could go to work. While she was gone, Kolby and Christopher and I went to Center Street to check out the Provo Freedom Festival. We soon found out that the milkshakes we had consumed and the heat did not mesh well and didn't stay that long. We somehow ended up checking out the Colonial Fest where everyone was dressed up and we felt like we went back in time.

It was meant for elementary school kids, but we really enjoyed ourselves.

When Ashleigh was done with work, she convinced me to dye my hair, so I picked up some Ion Brilliance in red. There was only one problem...

It didn't turn red.

Instead, it turned an insanely bright hot pink color. A color that was not Honor Code appropriate at all, so I got temporarily fired from my job at the Info Desk at BYU. That was an adventure...

It ended up fading really quickly and then washing out completely at the ends of my hair. It's been exciting. :) I'm pretty sure I've dyed my hair half the colors of the rainbow now...

After I dyed my hair, we went to Paula and Larry's house (Ashleigh's aunt and uncle) where we watched American Ninja Warrior and I promptly fell asleep (as usual).

July 6th - We started off the day at noon and then grabbed a late breakfast at Tangy's. I recommend the Sweet Roll! It's a huge cinnamon roll with lots of ooey gooey icing and melty butter. A tribute to Paula Deen, I'm sure. After we had satisfied our appetites, we had a massive water balloon fight but didn't roam much farther than the driveway (too impatient to pelt each other with balloons I guess). We drove our soaked selves back to Provo to change and have dinner. We finished up our night by lighting off our remaining fireworks from the Fourth of July. This started off innocently at first since we only had TNT brand fountains and cheap-y ground fireworks. We did, however, have one Phantom aerial firework left that we decided would be our finale. We set up the box and lit it, then jogged back to our viewing area. The first 4 shots went off without a hitch. Then, the firework took a turn for the worst. Or rather, it took a fall and ended up pointing into the crowd next to us. The very next shot bounced over a girl's lap and exploded in the crowd!

Everything seemed to be in slow-motion and high-speed at the same time. This was something out of Fail Videos - nothing that could ever happen to us! And yet, I was frozen in shock as Christopher decided to be a hero and ran back to the firework and tried to tilt it back up before the next shot went off. He only managed to tip it back the other way before it shot it's next two rounds into the cars parked in the parking lot. Thankfully, the 2 minute moment that felt like an eternity ended after those shots. A guy setting off some bigger fireworks across the parking lot felt the need to educate us on aerial fireworks by telling us that he kept his big ones balanced by placing the boxes of the used ones around it. Too bad we didn't have any big used fireworks to help us out. Christopher asked the group we almost killed if they were alright, and then we got out of there super quick. That was enough adventure for one night! This Arizona girl was pretty shaken up since anything with the word "fire" in it is pretty much banned in my hometown. Aerial fireworks are only a thing of dreams (and Disneyland)! 

July 12th - 19th - Family Reunion in California - My only vacation for the summer.

I had been looking forward to this trip all summer; and it did not disappoint! Christopher and I took a massive roadtrip (11 hours) to Grandma and Grandpa's house the weekend before the reunion was supposed to start. We had a fun time playing cards with the Williams, trying to prep Christopher for the reunion. The Monday we were allowed to check in to the beach house, Christopher and I left mid morning to get our car's oil changed at the nearest Walmart (an hour away, but on the way to Oceanside) and then meet my parents for lunch. My mother screamed when she saw me. I'll let you guess who's the favorite ;)  The beach house was beautiful! And surprisingly huge. It was fun to see all the family together in one place. Christopher handled it pretty well and only escaped for some peace and quiet like twice. He even won some 1 High games, proving himself worthy of joining the Miner clan. The last night we were there, us older cousins walked all the way to the pier and found a shark washed up on the beach and carried it back to the beach house like a trophy. Ah! Memories!

July 24th - Pioneer Day - This holiday was filled with more fireworks of course, only this time we were prepared! Actually, we didn't have any aerial fireworks but lit a bunch of smoke bombs and bees and army parachute men. Flamingthingsflyingintheair, Woo! We did have front row seats as the self-named "Provo All Stars" as they lit off thousands of dollars of fireworks. Bits of burnt cardboard rained on us all night. It was almost comforting to see that two other groups around us had firework mishaps - one shot into the dumpster and the other exploded right behind us.

I've concluded that fireworks are dangerous.

July 26th - 28th - Lehi - We spent this weekend watching the Wheeler kids. They are cute and silly and full of way more energy than my sleep deprived brain can handle :) I hope they aren't too mad at me for making them watch T.V. all weekend. I managed to get all the meals in, bathtime done before church, AND we got to church on time! I think I could totally rock this watching-kids-full-time-thing. However, that probably won't be for a while. ;) 

July 31st - Harry Potter's Birthday Party

One of my friends from work threw a Harry Potter Party and it was EPIC. She has apparently been doing this for years, because her decorations were INCREDIBLE!! The food was fantastic as well - She had cockroach clusters, pumpkin pasties, Fire Whiskey shots and Butterbeer! Christopher and I dressed up as Lupin and Tonks and almost won the contest for Best Couple Costume. We bought some Amortentia (Love Potion) and Felix Felicis (Liquid Luck). I think my friend promised me a Chocolate Frog too! This has more fully convinced me that I need to go to Harry Potter World before I die.

Wizard's Chess! (Stef is dressed as Dobby the house elf.)

Friday August 1st - Sunday August 3rd - Milo's Visit - Christopher's friend from Colombia has been in Utah for the past couple weeks and texted Christopher to meet up for their long talked about reunion. He became one of Christopher's closest friends from his mission. Milo doesn't speak much English so it was an exciting weekend.

• Friday - We went to the Rooftop Concert, only this time it was a hip hop show. We saw this group called the House of Lewis which was made up of a guy with an afro, a guy who wore a flower suit and then changed into a yarn suit, and a fat guy. It was hilarious. When we got back home, we played Mario Kart (in Spanish!) and I went to bed. Christopher apparently stayed up til 3am catching up with Milo.
• Saturday - Christopher made breakfast then we went to Walmart to get stuff for patacones. Patacones are fried plaintain slices that are a common side dish in Latin America. We went to the rancho market to get good plantains and then watched Captain America with Spanish subtitles when we got home. When our stomachs started rumbling, we went to El Salvador Restaurant and got pupusas. This place is a super yummy, hole-in-the-wall restaurant that is always crowded. When we were finished stuffing our faces, we drove to Santaquin for Orchard Days, but apparently it was already over by the time we got there. So we ended up going on a random adventure and driving all over the place. From the Payson temple to a trout farm to Sip'N drinks. Sip'N could rival our current soda place, Sodalicious.
  
  Too bad it's not closer. Milo wanted to see the Provo Temple and take pictures there so we did that and then made patacones. We finished off out night by going to the Velour to see VanLadyLove, a band we fell in love with at our first Rooftop Concert. Turns out, one of the sister wives was there too! (https://twitter.com/MeriBrown1/status) I was exhausted by this point, but the gang decided to go to Paula and Larry's again where we watched American Ninja Warrior and I (inevitably) fell asleep. (Does anyone sense a pattern here?)
• Sunday - We went to church at 1pm then went with Milo to the Spanish speakers Sunday school. We must not have been to our ward in a while because they thought I was a visitor in Relief Society. It was my hair color I guess. We ate Sushi after church, played some more Mario Kart, and then drove around to look for apartments for rent for Kolby. To end the night, we drove up the mountain to show Milo the Y. He enjoyed his stay here I think. Christopher liked catching up with his friend.

And now I'm caught up!

I've turned in my two weeks notice to the bakery. August 12th will be my last day. I am SO ready to sleep in! (As you probably noticed from my play-by-play of the month, I'm exhausted ALL THE TIME.)

For those of you wondering, here's what my hair looks like now:

I've got more exciting things planned for my summer:

ONE WEEK until Monumentour (Paramore and Fall Out Boy Concert)

16 days until Wicked

27 days until School Starts

August just might be more of a party than July was.

Here's to hoping.