My 25th BERFDAY!

I call this face....."BLUE STEEL". 

(I hope all of you know where this quote is from or else I just feel like an idiot)

Well Cody informed me that I only have one more year of being young...apparently turning 25 means that I'm pretty much a grandma.  To that I say...WHATEVER!  I still feel young no matter what he says.  My birthday yesterday was so much fun and so laid back!  What's been really awesome is that this entire week has pretty much been my birthday week with family taking us out to lunch and stuff.  Yesterday started out with my family singing Happy Birthday as I sat there and ate my oatmeal and then Cody surprised me with these lovely wrapped gifts.  He has the magic touch when it comes to wrapping presents don't you think? 

 Ha ha...he couldn't find the wrapping paper so WHO KNOWS where he found this lovely white stuff and then you'll notice that the blue "ribbon" is actually my Pilates resistance band.  Gotta love my hubby!  He actually made my birthday really special with a lot of girly things like hats, purses, and clothes.  Oh and he took me to the finale of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE last week in LA.  (which I will post pictures of later...)  So he's pretty much the best husband ever.

 During the day, my parents took us out for some delicious Hawaiian food and then my mom took me on a shopping spree.  I seriously can't remember the last time I was able to shop like that!  So thanks mom (and dad) for making my day even more special.  Later on in the evening, Cody and I went over to our friends Ryan and Lindsey's house for a scrumptious BBQ.  While Ryan was working up a sweat on the BBQ, I took their dog, Stella, and my dog for a ride on Lindsey's beach cruiser.  Don't worry, Stella never fell out.  She almost did...but I caught her.

  

 Anyway, dinner was absolutely fantastic.  Besides the fact that it  took Ryan and Cody three hours to make it...it was well worth it!  The chicken and bratwurst were smoked to perfection...and the chicken only caught on fire ONCE.  

To make dinner even better, a neighbor of mine gave me a birthday pineapple which was so thoughtful.  I don't like birthday cake, so we had grilled pineapple for dessert.  

So now that I am a quarter century old my goal is to live it up!  Thanks to everyone for making my birthday so special! 

The Fantasticks at Sundance

This past weekend, Cody's dad invited his entire dental staff out to dinner and up to the Sundance amphitheater for the showing of Fantasticks.   Somehow we were invited to go, but we're not complaining!  I guess Cody works for his dad every once in awhile so we'll take what we can get!  Anyway, the evening started out with a yummy dinner at Magelby's in Orem and then we all headed up to the show.  The amphitheater setting was really fun, but I (of course) wasn't equipped with a winter parka like I should have been.  It was freezing!  Luckily, hot chocolate came to my rescue as well as my husband (with blankets).  The Fantasticks was a fun show to see...especially since one of the lead characters couldn't carry a tune to save his life.  Ha ha.  I really hope no one who reads this is related to him.  

OPEN HOUSE at A Lotta Pilates

Come check the new studio out on Monday August 10th!!

I, along with Lisa Preece of Dance Illusion, will be holding an OPEN HOUSE at 36 South Main Street from 10am-noon and 5pm-7pm.

I'm so excited to get started on this adventure!! Come stop by...it would be great to see all of you!

Attention attention....READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Hey everyone!  As some of you know, I am starting my own little Pilates business here in Logan. I'll be specializing in teaching mat classes in three different formats.  There is definitely something for everybody. I am super excited to get started!  If anyone is interested, check out my other blog at alottapilates.blogspot.com  Let me know what you think and PLEASE tell everyone you know!  The schedules, rates, and class descriptions are all on my blog.  Classes start on August 17th!  

Also, if you are interested in registering before classes start, there will be an open house on August 10th from 10am-noon and 5pm-7pm at 36 South Main Street.  My friend Lisa Preece is holding an open house for her new dance studio, Dance Illusion, and I will have a table set up for A Lotta Pilates as well.

Oh yeah, one more thing...I will be teaching a drop in HIP HOP class at the new studio.  It will be on Tuesday nights from 7:30-8:30pm and the cost is $5.  This class will start on September 1st...I better see all of you coming in to shake your booty with me!

Jackson Hole Weekend

Every 24th of July, my family heads to Jackson Hole. We've been to Jackson sooo many times that we don't always go, but we decided to tag along this year. It was a good time and I'm glad we went.

This year the highlight was renting canoes and taking them to the String Lakes in the Teton mountains.



Sherrie (my mom), Jerald (my dad) and Addie (my niece). I'm pretty sure my dad's paddle never changed positions from where its at in this picture. My mom and Addie were always paddling though.


We stopped to take a dip and everyone decided to take a plunge off this rock. This is our niece, Naomi, in the center of the picture. It took her about 25 minutes to decide to jump off the rock, but she finally did it!

My sister Amy and her family singing as they paddled.

Ally's Bridal Shower

So I went to my cute friend Ally's bridal shower the other day and I had a few thoughts...

1) It is so nice to see old friends again
2) Chocolate covered strawberries should be a staple in my diet
3) Once you are married, you should have a bridal shower every five years or so...you know to "spice" things up again and to get presents
4) Ally sure got a lot of lingerie...which made me wonder where mine has disappeared to (I apologize in advance to any relatives that read this)
5) Time goes by way too quickly! I need to do better at keeping in touch with friends and family. It's the relationships in life that make us happy!!

If it could happen...it DID!

Oh my...where do I begin?  Well, I'll start out with something positive.  WE MADE IT TO LOGAN!  Yes, to all of you who were in such suspense over the past couple weeks, you can now rest assured that we are back.  Now for the negative.  According to the previous post, Cody had some car trouble a couple weeks back as he drove our little Contour back to Utah.  Well this post is going to make his journey look like a walk in the park  (Cody will probably argue this point).  Anyway, here goes...

1)  6:30am-  We are all packed up and the house is clean.  One last walk through and we were off in our 17 foot UHAUL and 15 foot trailer. In our minds we were thinking "Sweet, we are right on schedule...this never happens!"  

2) 6:50am- We make it to the Columbia Gorge and overhear an announcement on the radio, "Large tanker overturns and spills gasoline all over highway.  Road will be closed for the rest of the day."  Are you kidding me?  Not even fifteen minutes into our drive and we are already following detour signs.  As we start following the signs, we notice that we are headed right back into Portland.  Huh???  I get on the phone and call ODOT.  "Hi there, I was just calling to see where this detour is actually taking us?  I see that we are headed back into Portland and we are in a large moving truck pulling a fifteen foot trailer.  

Can you tell me the best way back to I-84?"

ODOT Lady: "Oh sure, you are just going to follow Highway 26.  This will bring you back to where you need to be."

Luckily we had our trusty GPS and changed the routing to find Highway 26.  Little did we know...this route took us through the freakin Cascade Mountains and up to the summit of Mount Hood.   FOUR HOURS LATER...

11:00am:  I-84 is in sight and we are in pretty good spirits despite the SLIGHTLY LARGE detour.  Cody is at the wheel and I drift off into a much needed sleep.  POP!!  I jumped about five feet into the air.  "What was that?"  Oh it was just our tire...blown all over the highway.  After safely pulling off the freeway, we call Roadside Assistance.  "Yeah, we can be there in one hour."  Oh great.  We couldn't help but laugh.  It was just our luck!  We took advantage of the time and rested, threw the ball for Kusaba, and made some lunch from the little that we had.  TWO HOURS LATER...

Yes, this made it through the Cascade mountains

                           The CULPRIT

                                 Keeping Kusaba entertained while we waited...and waited

1:00pm: We were back on the road yet again.  Mind you, we were probably only 45 minutes away from Portland.  That stupid detour and now the blown tire threw us WAY behind schedule.  Oh well...we were determined to continue.  We drive for about two hours with no interruptions and make it to Pendleton, OR for some real lunch (at Wendy's)

4:00pm:  Full and happy, we leave Pendleton and head into the Blue Mountains.  About 30 miles into the canyon I discover that my lips are really chapped and I need some chapstick.  I start feeling around for my purse...oh crap, where is it?  I start FREAKING out.  "Cody!!! My purse...it's not here!  I think I may have left it in Pendleton!!!!"

5:00pm: Leaving Pendleton...once again.  I still am thanking my lucky stars that someone at Wendy's turned my purse in.  There was a lot of cash in it and I was really stupid to have left it there.  Sigh.  At this point, I just want to give up.  Numerous times I tell Cody that I can't go another mile.  He calms me down and says, "It's okay...you know you are going to be laughing about this tomorrow."  

9:00pm:  Yes, we should have been home long ago but we are still driving.  We decide to stay in Boise, ID for the night.  After sneaking Kusaba into the hotel room, we are fast asleep and ready to put that long and dreadful day behind us.

Luckily, there are no more incidents to report.  The following day, our UHAUL works like a charm (a really SLOW charm) and we make it Logan.  Oh and Cody was definitely right, I am now laughing about the purse situation.  WE'RE BACK!! 

Too many Rockstars

Just finished driving our lovely Contour back to SLC from Portland.

I started a 6 am, blew out a tire by 10 am, found out my spare tire had no air in it by 10:30, Hitchiked in to town by 11 am, bought an air compressor by 11:30 am, hitchiked back to my car by 11:45 am, filled up the spare and drove to the next town by 12:15 pm, bought a small bag of popcorn for $85 dollars (but it came with a free tire, thanks les schwab) by 1pm, back on the road by 2:15 pm. I was a little worn out so I started on energy drink # 2 by 3:15 pm, that didn't work so I ate more candy and sugar, had my sugar high... then came my sugar low, so I had to drink energy drink # 3. Well I finally got to SLC 16 hours later, but now its 1 am and I'm so loaded on energy drink, laughy Taffy, and crumb donuts I can't sleep. Maybe I'll just stay up until 7 am when I have to get up.

I'm sure we've all had these days right?

Back To Logan

As our time here in Portland grows nearer to the end, we have been debating as to where we would be heading once we leave here. Seeing as airlines aren't really in the business of hiring pilots at the moment, we have decided to further our educations. So, we are headed back to the greatest college town in Utah (otherwise known as the vortex, because of the impossibility to leave and never come back) LOGAN!!! Anyway, Cody will be headed back to USU to take some pre-requisite courses for graduate school, and Tennille will be able to concentrate on teaching pilates as well as take a couple more classes from USU.


Although we are pretty sad to leave the Northwest, we are really excited to come back to Logan and do the things that we have been wanting to do up there. Portland has offered us some really good times, and definitely some great photo ops, but I suppose every good thing has to come to an end. We'll be leaving PDX on July 8th and arriving in Logan hopefully later that day. So if anyone is up for sunday dinners, running the stairs on Old Main, camping up Logan Canyon (minus getting stocked by a cougar), or anything else that is Loganesque (?), send us an invite because we'll be there.

Europe Cruise 2009

I do have to admit that working for the airlines sometimes has its perks.  You get paid practically nothing to deal with angry passengers, broken airplanes, bad weather, and delays, but when you are able to travel to your hearts content for free, it makes SOME of those things worth it.  We were lucky enough to go to Europe about a month ago with our travel buddies Brandon and Courtney (who also work for the airlines).  Awhile back they had found a steal of a deal cruise for us to go on and we couldn't turn it down.   The only complaint that we have about this trip is that is wasn't long enough!  I would have loved to stay in all of these places much longer than we did.  We felt like we got a whirlwind introduction to Europe, but it was still amazing nonetheless.  Here are our stops along the way!

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands

We all met up in Amsterdam bright and early after a thirteen hour flight.  Poor Brandon and Courtney had to fly economy class and didn't get a wink of sleep (they had to fly in from Atlanta) . Cody and I walked off the plane refreshed and ready for the day (we flew in from Chicago and got pampered up in first class)!  Once we got our bags, it was rather crazy trying to get from the airport to downtown.  One thing that is so awesome about Europe is that there are trains, trains, and more trains.  You just have to KNOW which train to get on.  Luckily most of the dutch signs were translated into English and we were finally able to find our way downtown.  

Just when we thought that trains were the best way to get around, boy were we wrong.  We walked out into the city and about got hit by ten different cyclists, no joke.  EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE that lives in Amsterdam owns a bicycle and also has it parked downtown.  I know that I've posted this picture, but this picture doesn't even do it justice.  Barely escaping with our lives, we found our hotel, sat down for like two seconds, and then we were on our way.  Oh did I mention that I got in a fight with a really old lady while we were at the train station in Amsterdam?  She was the bathroom attendant and a feisty one at that.  I gave her some money so that I could go to the bathroom (yes, you pay to use the bathroom) and when I was finished she didn't like how much water I was using.  She came over and literally PUSHED me.  I couldn't believe it!  And the worst part about it, no one in my party was there to witness it and laugh about it with me later on!  

I still laugh inside everytime I think about that incident.  Anyway, we found a tour group in Amsterdam called New Europe.  They offer FREE walking tours in most popular European cities so we joined up.  The walking tour was three hours long, but it seemed to go by really fast.  There was SO much to see.  The Red Light District, leaning buildings, the Anne Frank House, "coffee shops" (which are definitely NOT coffee shops if you catch my drift), canals, bikes, more bikes, and A LOT of people.  

This "coffee shop" is world famous.  I guess a scene in Oceans Twelve was filmed here.  Also, you can see our tour guide, Alex, in the red.  He was a character!

We absolutely loved this tour.  Our tour guide, Alex, was a nut, and really interesting to listen to.  He had great stories about how Amsterdam came to be.  Amsterdam is known world-wide for being extremely TOLERANT of everything.  Alex mentioned three rules that the people must live by, but beyond these you are FREE to do whatever you want.

1) You must be discreet

2) It can't hurt anyone

3) It has to be good for business!

Another great thing about Amsterdam are their markets.  One of my favorite memories from the whole trip involves the market, and not surprisingly, involves food.  We came upon this booth that makes mini dutch pancakes.  The pancakes are smothered in butter and topped off with powdered sugar.  Yum!  In addition to that, we also tasted the most fresh strawberries I think I've ever had.  

NORMANDY, FRANCE

After spending a short time in Amsterdam, we found our way down to Rotterdam, Netherlands and to the cruise port.  Now I have to mention that ALL of this was done Amazing Race style. We had no idea where we were going, no one knew WHERE the ship port was, Cody managed to leave our NEW camera on a train and then managed to chase the train down to get the camera back (thank you!), and we were on a time crunch.  It was rather exciting and yes, we found our ship.  Here she is....the Norwegian Jade

After setting sail, and eating about ten meals (boy do we love cruises!), we made our first stop in France.  Here we experienced yet another Amazing Race drama.  Our cab driver couldn't speak one lick of English and he couldn't find our car rental location...so after being dropped off back at the ship, we met up with some Americans (who were actually hard to find on this ship) and found out that they were also traveling down to Normandy, France.  Normandy is the infamous location of D-DAY that occurred in 1944. We wanted to visit the American Cemetary here as well as the beaches where all the action happened. We all hopped in a car, while our new friend, Scott, drove.  The drive took about two hours because we got lost again and Scott insisted that he drive at the fastest speed possible rather than drive slow and look for the correct exits.  Ha ha...we were all trying so hard not to laugh as we sat in the back seat.  

Even though we drove at lightning speed to Normandy, there were some cool sights along the way, including this bridge.  

France is so cool, can I just say?  Europe in general, is just amazing because there is so much history and old buildings.  We realized how NEW America really is after seeing some of the architecture here.  The beaches of Normandy were breathtaking.  It was hard to imagine that only 65 years ago, one of the biggest battles was fought and so many lives were lost.  

On the left are our new friends, Scott and Lisa.  This is the actual beach where soldiers stormed and attacked the Germans.  Unfortunately the American soldiers didn't know that the German soldiers were waiting for them.

There was so much to learn about World War II and about D-Day.  Cody and I were wishing that we had paid a little more attention back in our high school days!  Regardless, this experience was well worth the two hour drive.  Our day in port was only a day long so we didn't have the chance to drive to Paris.  We'll save that one for the next trip.  

GUERNSEY ISLAND (in the English Channel)

The next port I actually didn't see because I was feeling lazy and felt like sleeping in.  Oops.  However, I hear it was pretty cool and that I missed out on seeing a cool castle, some cute cobblestone streets (according to Cody...he knows I'm a sucker for those kinds of things), and good shopping.  Darn it.  Here are some pictures from Guernsey though.  You'll have to make up your own captions because I don't know what anything is.

This day in port was really short (thus my want for more sleep), but I had to gear up for LONDON the next day!

LONDON, ENGLAND

Our final stop (yes, this was too short of a cruise) was in Southampton, England.  Now our cruise ship said that we would be stopping in London...hmm...come to find out, we were two hours away from London when we got off the ship that morning.   On top of that, we had all of our luggage.  The boys managed to buy us all bus tickets and we endured the long ride in.  We thought that our day was wasted once we finally made it to our hotel via the Tube, but lo and behold, we are speedster tourists and were able to see quite a bit of London before we had to leave the next day.  

It was extremely easy to get around on the trains, which made our journey much more enjoyable.  The following day, we hopped back on a plane and came home.  Cody and I were pampered once again in first class and I'm pretty sure I slept the majority of the time.  We were wiped out!  Cody and I were joking that people usually look forward to getting off of a plane when we actually wanted to stay on for a few more hours.  The delicious food, hot washcloths, free movies, our own beds, were really hard to leave once we got back!  EUROPE, we will miss you and hope to see you again soon. 

Why my self esteem went down the drain...or river, or whatever

So before I indulge in a little self pity I do want to explain that when we woke up this morning (at 6:30am) I was in high spirits, especially after seeing this beautiful sight before my eyes.  I took this picture right after we launched our boat into the Columbia River.  

It was rather cold this morning, but Cody has convinced me that you have to brave the cold to get the "butter" or "glass" as most hard-core wakeboarders call it.  I do have to admit that the water was perfect.  The only problem was that it was about 40 degrees colder than I prefer.  It was a mere 60 degrees! You know its bad when a seven-foot-tall grown man screams like a girl for the first ten minutes he is immersed in the icy goodness.  (One of Cody's friends...I won't disclose any names) Anyway, this is where the self-pity comes in.  You see, last summer I felt pretty confident about wakeboarding and now for some reason I am so scared to try ANYTHING.  The temperature of the water wasn't helping and the sun was nowhere to be seen.  You can obviously tell by now that I am not a hard core wakeboarder like my husband.  Sometimes I pretend to be, but conditions have to be JUST RIGHT!  So I hope that gives you a good preface to my story as I still wallow in self-pity.  Take a look at the pictures below, which only add insult to injury (literally!)

The first couple are of Cody doing what he does best and then the last three are of me doing what I do best...JUMPING (about two inches) AND FALLING.  I literally jumped the wake twice before I caught the edge of my board and face planted.  The last one (although it's extremely unflattering) is actually quite funny.  Whenever I face plant, I always feel my face to make sure that it's all still there.  This time Cody got proof of it.  

I plan to go out and ride again...when it's 85 degrees and I'm not feeling like a pansy.