Cha-cha Changes!

For the past 2 years Josh and I have been serving in the Primary as the CTR 6 teachers. We have loved our calling so much. Teaching 6-7 yrs olds is a lot of fun. We lucked out and have had a really good group of kids to teach. Josh and I have called Primary 2 hours of fun and entertainment (and learning too)! Such as today during singing time Josh was asked to dress like a "celebrity." We are practicing for the Primary Program next month and him and 2 others were the "guest celebrity judges" to critique the kids on their songs. The kids went crazy for Joshes outfit. It was hilarious!

So now for the change. I was given a new calling to serve in the Young Womens. I am going to be the Young Womens Secretary! I am so excited!!! I love the YWs program so much. When I first joined the church I started out in YW. I feel like I gained so much from being a part of such a great program during my teen years. I had great leaders who I looked up to and made great friends. I don't know how I would have survived my teen years without it! It is going to be a lot of work, but I really look forward to this opportunity. I hope I will do well in my new calling!

We are going to miss our Primary class so much! We had the cutest kids. One of our students came by our house this afternoon with cookies and a handmade card telling us that she will miss us. It is always great to feel loved!

Narco

Narco might be one of my nicknames. I'm really good at falling asleep so it is pretty fitting. Do you know what else is pretty fitting for me . . . this hoodie! I'm pretty sure it was made just for me!

I was browsing the web yesterday and I can across this! The perfect sleep ready hoodie. Perfect for the girl who always falls asleep. Who thinks on this level of wardrobe/lifestyle functionality??? Burton does! I am already in LOVE with Burton and now I am even more.

I always fall asleep in the car (but never when I'm driving, don't you worry) and this would be perfect. Pillow, and eye shield included!

So maybe if I'm good this year, Santa will give me this for Christmas.

6th Annual San Diego Summer Stay

Every year, for the past 6 years Josh and I have been spending a week near the end of summer in San Diego. We get to spend time with my family and do summer the real way (my way!). This year was one of my favorite trips. It was relaxing and fun. I have a million pictures of the trip, but I put then on Facebook if you want to see them. I'm getting tired of posting everything in a million spots. Do you ever feel this way? I'll break down the events.

Friday: Arrived at night . . . 11 hr drive!

Saturday: Mission Beach - Not an ideal beach day due to it being cold, but still a good time. Then we went downtown to the Embarcadero and check out the "tall ships." Dinner @ Anthony's.

Sunday: Church

Monday: Drive up to LA. Went to the Burton Store, Carl's Jr. Skate Plaza, and visited where my mom went to design school @ FIDIM. Checked into the hotel (a really nice and perfectly modern Holiday Inn) and spent the night at Downtown Disney.

Tuesday: Spent the day at CA adventure. Michelle rode on a lot of new rides which was really fun for me. The highlight for me was the World of Color show. Words can't describe the awesomeness and Disney magic!

Wednesday: Disneyland! It was so fun, but when has it never been fun for me? Josh had a lot of fun too since it was spilt into 2 days and it wasn't crowded. We walked on all of the rides and had a leisurely day at the park. I was thinking how I have been to Disneyland around 30 times which makes me smile.

Thursday: Back to San Diego. We went to the Mormon Battalion Center. It was inspiring to learn more about their sacrifice.

Friday: Went to PB with Josh and had a perfect beach day. Warm sun, fun waves and spending time with Josh. Then at night we went to H&M.

Saturday: We had our second annual Beach Bonfire/BBQ at Coronado. It was really windy, but it was still great to be at the beach with my family and friends.

Sunday: Did the drive back to our Utah life. Why does it always seem longer on the drive back from vacation?

We had a really good time. I'm always a little sad when summer is. I love warm weather, being outside, bbq's, bonfires, going to the beach, swimming, wearing shorts and not having to wear a jacket. Fall is almost here. Josh and I have had a crazy fun summer. We did so much! We are definitely taking advantage of being two young, married, successful people who are living our lives to the fullest!

Good Bye 2010 Summer!

Natalie's Quarter of a Century Birthday Bash

Josh and I really like having parties and Josh wanted to do something fun for my 25th. So we had this party and had a lot of fun!

Josh got cupcakes from the Sweet Tooth Fairy. The Vanilla is the best and Josh is the best for making sure we had an awesome dessert!

Blowing out the candles!

Julie and Tara with their cute girls!

My Ghost friends. The newly weds Aimme & Jerry and Jordan, Ryan, Ella and little baby Kyler. I wish I could have taken a better photo.

My work friends!

The coolest couple in our ward, the Carters!

Our food spread and the back side of the Other Josh. I was happy that I made my most favorite punch.

Jenny Weston and I. Jenny is pretending to be short.

I made 3 of these pendant banners. I only used 6 sheets of 12x12 paper per banner. I then sewed them together on the machine. They looked really cute!

I was happy so many of my friends came out to celebrate with me. Thank you all who came. I was happy we were able to have the party outside because I have always had outside b-day parties. It's one of the perks of an August Birthday!

Being 25 is weird. I have been thinking for the past several years that I'm still 21. It's going to be a transition getting used to 25!

Cats & Yard

I took some photos of the baby cats and the yard a few weeks ago. I'm pretty amazed at how our yard turned out this summer versers last summer. This summer it looks a million times better. More on that after the cat photo shoot.

Gnarly was being so cute. I took these photos after I passed my UT drivers test. I let the cats play outside to celebrate with me!

Yetti the jungle cat.

Apricots galore! Again, we had tons of apricots. They were really tasty for the first part. But then you have to pick up the fallen ones and they are squishy and gross.

This is my favorite part of the yard. Back in June my parents came out we did a lot of yard work. My dad is a yard master and showed me the ways of yard wrangling. We pulled weeds, fertilized, pulled more weeds, trimmed plants, pulled more weeds and watered like crazy. Having a big yard is a HUGE responsibility. I learned that last summer and was pretty disappointed that I couldn't make the yard look nice. I didn't have to knowledge of how to take care of it all.

This year I watered and watered and watered. The grass became really green. Only parts of our yard have a sprinkler system so I had to do a lot of it by hand. My dad helped me start to set up places for sprinklers around the yard. I have tweaked and modified my sprinkler placement and I really have a good system down.

The front is really green. Josh and I bought some weed killer that ended up killing our lawn and the weeds. It looked like a dog and peed all over our yard. I was soooooo annoyed at the person at Loews who recommended the weed killer! I planted some new grass seeds and now you can't even tell!

And our street is under construction so don't mind the cones!

There are still some dead spots here and there, but for the most part it is 100% better then last year. I have spent hours sweating out in the yard this summer after work and on saturdays. I'm pretty proud of the outcome. Josh mows and weed wacks the lawn and a few times he pulled some weeds with me. Mostly this yard was all me because I decided this year, if I want it to look good I'm going to take care of it! Next year will be even better because I know exactly what to do to take care of the lawn. Lots of our neighbors and friends commented on the progress of the yard and that made me feel pretty good too. :) Hard work pays off!

Chicago: Monday

We started the day off right with breakfast at the Bongo Room.

I had Red Velvet Pancakes. I'm not exaggerating when I say this was the best breakfast that I have ever had!!! Red Velvet pancakes with a white chocolate syrup and walnuts sprinkled on the top. It was one of those meals that you do not want to stop eating. I thought about that breakfast for the next 2 weeks.

Josh had a similar experience with his breakfast. Carrot Cake Pancakes, white chocolate syrup and Pineapple on top. He was in a food induced coma for most of the day.

We then hopped on the "L" and went over to ohh and ahh at The Bean.

It was pretty cool. Who doesn't like looking at yourself in weird angles?

I loved the architecture.

This was a possible Bansky piece. He is a street graffiti artist and this looked like his work.

Ah, H&M. We like big cities because there is a guaranteed H&M. We didn't go too crazy this time.

See only 1 medium sized bag! BTW Chicago is a really clean and beautiful city. It is as clean as SLC which is amazing for a city of its size.

In front of the Art Institute.

We then headed over to our last City Pass stop. The Museum of Science and Industry. We wanted to stay here for an entire day. There were so many great things to learn about. This is an ENTIRE captured German Submarine from WW2 inside of the Museum.

Kitchen in the submarine.

We both had family who served in the military. My Grandpa Jim was in the Navy so it was pretty cool to see what Subs looked like back then. That bed was barley big enough for me!

Tons of retired planes and locomotives in this section.

We then had to head back to the air port to catch our flight. It was a fun and quick trip. We jammed so many things into only a few days!

I am going to leave you with why I love Chicago:

- Great Lakes. It looked exactly like the ocean and I love staring at the ocean.

- Clean City

- Awesome Shopping

- Great Places to Eat

- Tons to do

- Really nice people. Whenever we were lost (which was frequent) someone would always come over and help us out.

Bye Chicago!