WE STAYED IN VEGAS ON THE WAY DOWN TO SAN DIEGO. Well, since we’re in Utah, a more accurate description would be, “we stayed in Vegas on the way over“ but who cares about being politically correct? I was too busy trying to figure out how to get the display on the radio to stop changing colors like a bad disco light. Took us a good half hour but we finally fixed it to just stay on one color.

Sue stayed at the hotel and had a nice hot bath while Kevin and I wandered the Strip for a few hours. Mind you, we’re both too young to gamble, drink or rent strippers (just kidding, but I do have a good story to tell about that later) so we basically just laughed at all the drunks walking around holding empty bottles of Jack Daniels people watch. We’d only been dating for a month at the time so we were both still pretty shy. Which means I didn’t beg him to go to Mandalay Bay to look at the fishies like I wanted. However, I did beg him to go to the MGM – possibly a mile walk from our hotel – so we could see the lions.

AND WE DIDN’T SEE THEM. Shoulda stuck to the fishies.

He took his camera out since I was too shy/nervous/scared to take mine so I left it at the hotel. Some scenery and photos he took:

We went in a mall and found pretty ceilings, a pretty tree

And Paul Blart!

Then we took some photos of us and wandered around for a bit. This could just be the worst, greasiest photo of us ever. Well, of me anyway.

This one is not so bad. Matter of fact, I kind of like it.

Eventually we find the M&M World Store and peruse the shelves. Kevin makes me hug this M&M who, “looks like he’s saying, ‘Mmmm chocolate’ after sniffing his finger”.

I did not make that up.

Then he decides we need some chocolate and Peanut Butter M&M’s sound quite good, so we go straight to the back to this gem.

That sweet, sweet wall of candy that would fulfill even Willy Wonka’s every dream.

And apparently I look like the devil.

Don’t mind me.

Kevin grabs a bag and fills it chock full of Peanut Butter M&M’s. I mean, STUFFED TO THE TOP THEY ARE POURING OUT EVERYWHERE type of full.

“Erm you might want to ditch some. That’s a bit much.” I advised. And rightfully so. Here is where the funniest part of the night happens. He dumps half of them out and takes them to the cashier. She weighs them and without missing a beat demands $10 for them.

TEN DOLLARS FOR A BAG OF NORMAL M&M’S.

100 DIMES.

1,000 PENNIES.

You get my drift. Kevin looks at her in confusion, looks at me and then looks down at his wallet and I lost it. I had to go walk around the corner, put my head beneath my knees and try not to cry from laughing so hard. I don’t think I’ll ever see anything funnier in my life. “I spent a lot of money on these, treasure them,” he whispers to me as I snatch the bag away from him. Now everytime we see M&M’s we laugh like idiots.

On the way back to our room we saw a fifty-ish year old man making fun of the “card flippers”. You know the type. The type that lean across you and try to hand your man a card with a photo-shopped girl and a 1-800 phone number at the top that says, “call me, will arrive in less than 20 minutes”. One of the card flippers went a bit too far when he said, “Hey! You need a woman!” to Kevin, who replied, “I’ve already got one, thanks.”

We were almost to the doors of our hotel when we hear him yell above the dingy crowd, “Why have only one? You need TWO women in your bed tonight!!”

Oh Vegas. How you never cease to amuse me.

YES. THIS IS HAPPENING. I’M BLOGGING ABOUT A VACATION I TOOK THREE MONTHS AGO. Procrastination doesn’t quite cover it. More like procrastination with a side of selfishness because I’d been saving these memories for me and reviewing them in my mind when rainy days hit. It’s not that I didn’t want to tell the stories to you, it’s that I was too lazy to upload 1,000 photos to Flickr and then this blog, and I felt if I tried to describe things with words I would taint the memory. But I’ve decided to kick myself in the pants and just post. So if the next few posts seem photo-heavy, long-winded and mushy, I ask for your forgiveness in advance.  Thank you.

Back in November Kevin’s mom Susan invited us to drive to San Diego, California with her to visit her friend named Kim (more on Kim later). We were more than happy to go with her. However, it seems like you can’t plan a vacation without at least 2,453 things go wrong and when it rains it pours. I had an English paper due right when we were supposed to leave (A seven page paper with citations that I still hadn’t written. Remember when I used to be a college student? Fun times), and two math tests along with chapter homework to turn in immediately when we got back. I was a bit stressed, and Kevin’s continual “your day is going to get much better, trust me” reminders weren’t really helping. I was in a no-good-so-sad-pity-me mood where I wanted to sit and sulk all day.

So imagine my surprise when Melissa, the secretary at my work, comes walking up to me asking my name. I grunted a “hmmm” at her without really looking. “These are for you” she said and placed an armful of flowers on my desk. It was HUGE. The biggest floral arrangement I’ve seen – let alone received – in my life. I questioned it for a moment before she told me, “you are the only Aubrey here, right?” then she laughed and walked away.

And I laughed. And blushed. And blast him, he was right. My day had gotten better against my will.

And I was perfectly okay with that.

What was funny was the reaction the flowers got for the three days they lived on my desk. With this stunt, Kevin became the most loved, popular boyfriend of any employee at my company. We have a large female population there so naturally this was hot gossip material.

And envy material.

Yes. There was lots of envy.

I had girls clear from Marketing coming to me to see my flowers. We all tried to choose a favorite part of the arrangement.

These were my favorites.

Or was it these?

No it was definitely these.

But wait, there’s a white and pink one.

I give up. It’s ALL pretty.

But my favorite part? The fact that he cared. He cared enough about my stressful day that he decided to get me flowers. And not just that, he had them hand delivered to my desk. My desk in front of all my coworkers so everyone could see that I was loved and I was cared for.

And yes.

I still have the vase and the pink ribbon.

I HAVE A QUESTION.

Is it too late to blog about Christmas? I mean, it’s been almost a month, but I have a video to share with you.

Yes it’s of my niece, and the times that it’s not her, it’s of my dog. The one video I did of me turned out so weird that I can’t bear to watch it – it’s like hearing myself on a tape recording, or watching videos of me when I was five. Just awkward.

Scratch that last part about the videos of me when I was five. We actually don’t have ANY videos of me when I was growing up.

I was a neglected child.

*start pity music*

Anyway, Aspen is a non-neglected child and she got just what she asked for for Christmas – a barbie car. Her reasoning? “Bennie ate my Barbie car, I need a new one!” The video below is her reaction when she opened the present.

Ash, I hope you don’t mind me posting it. I did so because your Blogger account was being lame and I’m a nerd that lives in a basement and still plays WoW cool and have my own lame website that my mom doesn’t even read domain.

ON NEW YEAR’S EVE, KEVIN TOOK ME TO SALT LAKE CITY. They had a party going on called Eve, where there was guaranteed to be snowboarding, ice skating and hot cocoa.

We parked and walked around looking for food. And I don’t know if it’s just me, but the City is a completely different place on foot. But I get lost anywhere. I get lost on a car, on a boat, on a train, in a plane…

We hunted for food while I made him stop every ten feet so I could take another picture of another building. He was starving. And cold. And hungry. And did we cover hungry? Let’s just say he’s got a lot of patience when it comes to putting up with me.

I was taking a photo of the SLC Temple from across the road when a man in a top hat behind us tried to cajole Kevin into going inside Zions Bank.

“Happy New Years! Step inside here for a minute.”

“No, we’re okay.”

“No seriously come inside.” He pointed in the Bank.

“Emmm we’ll pass. Do you know where we can get some food?”

“Come on in! We have eclairs!! ECLAIRS!!!” A new guy waltzed out of the building and opened the door for us.

“What the heck is an eclair? I just want real food. Where around here can we eat?” I knew Kevin was losing the battle when the guy grabbed him buy the front of the shirt and tried to pull him in.

“Look. Just at least come in for a glow stick,” he tried a last ditch effort.

“You have GLOWSTICKS!?” We said at the same time,  and hurried inside for our treasures. Are we the only 20 year olds that still think glowsticks are cool?

Thankfully the guy was nice enough to tell us afterwards where we could find food, and it turns out we’d walked a big loop around it.

We ate at a small, clean looking shop called the Bayleaf Cafe. “This place is trendy” Kevin whispered to me like it was a secret. And I agreed. It was trendy – not so much that there were weirdos and hippies. It was trendy in the sense that I felt like I was in New York, so I pretended to be for a few minutes. And I took even more photos while we waited.

“I’m so hungry I could punch you!”

Just kidding. He didn’t say that.

After we were full we walked back to the “Eve” event where people were snowboarding.

And people were singing.

And others were ice skating (I saw a guy who split open his head from falling. Yea. I’ll pass). We also saw some girl point at a lady wearing flashing glasses and scream,

“Hey look!!! It’s Jean Luc Picard!”

“Excuse me?” The lady stopped and asked.

“Your husband, he looks just like Jean Luc Picard – you know, from Star Trek?”And with that last part, the husband and wife couple stomped away, but Kevin and I had to admit that he did, in fact, look just like Jean Luc Picard and we were laughing our heads off.

We rode the Trax over to The Gateway mall, where they have the coolest tree I’ve ever seen.

On the Trax ride back, Kevin pointed out a guy with a tear-shaped tattoo under his eye. “That means he’s killed someone.”

“Really?” I whispered in horror.

“Yep really,” he looked down at me and chuckled.

“I don’t wanna be on train no mo!” I pouted. The guy with the tattoo was giving the couple ahead of us directions and wishing them well as we unloaded. “That’s the nicest murderer I’ve ever met,” I said in all seriousness, which made both of us laugh. We didn’t even realize where we were until Kevin spotted a certain someone.

It’s our local news lady!

And her green screen!

And that other lady! (I’m so good with names, aren’t I?)

By this point we were cold and started hunting for hot chocolate. I didn’t like mine and threw it away in favor of a strawberry frappachino.

Happy 2010 everyone!

THIS IS WHAT CHRISTMAS ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKS LIKE.

Happy Holidays from Ollie and I.

THIS IS WHAT CHRISTMAS INSIDE MY HOUSE LOOKS LIKE.

And now there are plenty of wrapped (and some waiting to be wrapped) presents under this tree.

Merry Christmas everyone.

IT’S KEVIN’S BIRTHDAY TODAY!

Wanna know something else that’s interesting?

It’s my half birthday today as well. Yep, we’re exactly six months apart. I couldn’t find someone more similar to me if I tried.

Happy Birthday Kevin, I really hope you liked the helicopter ride (pics coming later). You are amazing and I have so much fun when I’m with you!!

THIS LITTLE JUMPING BEAN TURNS TWO TODAY.

That means she’ll have a whole new set of big girl clothes, a whole new set of words, and a whole new set of adorableness.

It also means she’s one more year away from the baby days, which makes me sad. I remember when she was so little that we’d have to give her gas drops to make her happy. Not that she needed them, it was just the only thing that tasted good to her and would calm her down if she was fussy.

I remember babysitting her and texting Ash photos of every face she made just so she wouldn’t miss it. I remember when Ashley told me her first sentence, “I wanna cookie!”.

I kind of miss that stage, but I won’t lie. This stage?

It pretty much rocks too. Happy birthday to the cuttest little munchkin ever!

SEE MOM AND DAD.

See dad cook.

See Dad converse.
(and yes, my brother-in-law is a firefighter. RULE!)

See Dad kindly sharing his food with many dogs and a few hungry cats.

Now, see Mom.

See Mom with me.

See Mom stuck on the porch having the time of her life during a sporadic hailstorm in the middle of a sunny day.

Now, see Mom kiss Dad! Favorite photo of my life.

Happy Birthdays to the best parents four daughters could ever ask for. I love you both more than words or posts can say.

Disclaimer: To insure my own life safety, the first person to tell Dad I posted these photos owes me twenty bucks.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LOVELY SISTER, SAM.

She is older by three years, which means she’s turning Twenty Three today! And look, she doesn’t even look any older up close. . .

I lived with her for a year when I was being rebellious against my parents. It really taught me a lot about what a relationship with a sister should be, and sometimes what it shouldn’t be. We were literally joined at the hip at her house and did everything together. Vacations to Vegas, horse riding competitions in Price, working together up the canyon to clean the mansions that she does, eating the same food, wearing the same clothes (she used to steal mine out of the washer, might I add. She could’ve at least waited until they were dry!).

Every night, Sam, her husband Mark, Dale and I would meet up at the arena and just ride. Those were the best times of my life, up there on the back of a big strong horse just trotting around with Sam.

Or we’d catch baby kill deers and then realize that this is the best picture of us of all time.

Happy Birthday Sam. Love ya!

Post note: I look like the Hunchback of Notre Dam. Just sayin.