Happy Anniversary in NYC

My first train ride
The Manhattan Temple

Central Park


The Navigator
Time Square
My first subway ride
On the Ferry, on our way to Liberty Island

The Monks
The Statute of Liberty

Chad and I and the Lovely Lady 

We had the best day together in New York City celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary. I love spending time with Chad.  Thanks for the amazing tour of NYC Chad! I love you tonz. 

Me and My Sister Natasha's Day at Ocean City Beach

On the Big Wheel at Gilean's Wonderland. This was a little ghetto carnival, but fun enough, off the boardwalk at Ocean City Beach in New Jersey. The beach is about 1 hour and 20 mins. away from where we live near Philadelphia.
Natasha. I know, my little sister is a Babe.
Me, enjoying my ice cream cone.
We loved the swings. We were getting in touch with our little kid side again. It was funny that we were the only grown adults on the ride. We were surrounded by all little kids. 



The Beach! at Ocean City, NJ
Just Chillin. Enjoying the environment, my book, "The Host" that I was listening to on my IPod, and enjoying my PB&J sandwich.We wanted to get out of town, and out of the apartment, so we did. What the heck, we just picked up and went to the closest beach. We finally had a day with out rain, so it was nice to get out.  We made the best of our day at the beach, New Jersey's #1 beach.  I love the beach. We had a good time. 

The Latest Here in Philly

The White House

George Washington Statute at the American History Museum
In memory of those who died in Vietnam


The Washington Monument
The Lincoln Memorial


The World War II Monument






The Capitol
 

We are currently living near Philadelphia, in Conshohocken Pennsylvania for the summer. It has been a new adventure here. We are excited to explore this place more. I am getting to know the area better. I have enjoyed it so far. It is really pretty and green here and the roads are crazy but I am getting more familiar with them so I am doing better getting around to Walmart and Costco. It has been really nice having a GPS to show me around. Tash and I have been chillin together, working out, making meals for our husbands and going to the store frequently, it is crazy. There is always something else we need to get at the store for our next meal. I can't imagine how it is going to be when I have family of kids to cook and care for, my husband as been enough. Ha ha. I have gone to the pool a few times it has been pretty rainy lately and Tash and I attempted to play tennis one day last week. We want to go out and practice our skills everyday. Tennis is really so much fun, I am just not good at it so I want to go and play more. I interviewed at a Nanny Agency here and if something comes my way great, then I will Nanny but if not, I know I will keep busy and enjoy the summer. 

I am still on the look out for a teaching job this fall. It is slim pickin right now. I did have a conference call interview that I was excited about, but nothing yet. We will see how things play out. I feel like I have a disadvantage because I am not there in person to interview but with technology these days it is nice, so I hope I can get by. All the applying is through the internet and web cams and skype are great for long distance communication. I believe everything happens for a reason. I know that an opportunity will come. Everything will work out for the best as long as I do my best and leave the rest! Right?! The Lord has always blessed us with what we need. I just need to be patient. 

 Chad and I had the opportunity to go venture off to Washington DC. That place is amazing. There is so much to see, so much that we didn't have enough time to do and see all that we wanted to in one day. We will definitely need to go back and visit more of the museums. Chad is just limited on free time with his job. The only day off is Sunday, which is good. I am glad he has this day of rest so we can go to church, but it tends to be a day of play too, which is hard. I loved seeing the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial was amazing. In between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial stretch we stopped at the Word War II memorial with a neat pond and fountains. It was beautiful. The architecture is amazing on all of the buildings, nothing I have seen before. It is very different, very interesting. There is a lot of symbolism in many of these buildings and monuments too. We came across the most interesting George Washington Statute at The American History Museum. I have a picture and you will see. That place has so much to see. I could spend all day there. I loved it. I wish I could have spent more time there but my tummy was so hungry and my feet were tired of all the walking. This was the last place we visited and then we went and ate some dinner and then we had to call it a day and head back home. It is about a 2 and 1/2 hour drive. It was neat to stop by and see the White House too. I loved it all. There is so much History here. It is so amusing to me. I am excited to take a trip downtown to Philly with my Babe too. Even though it is hard to be away from home, it is good to get away and experience something new. I will be home soon enough. I do miss you all and love you. Being out here does make me appreciate Utah so much more. I love my Home. 

Chad and I are enjoying ourselves out here in Philly despite the loud train waking me up every morning. Our apartment is nice. It is like living in a hotel. Chad is doing really well. He is selling like crazy. I am so proud of him. We are so happy together and we are enjoying life, making the best of it. I love the phrase "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass by, it is about learning how to dance in the rain." I choose to dance. I told Chad this one day when it was rainy. He hates it when it rains because it does make his job harder. It is just inconvenient. I told him to try to not let the weather affect him. He came home and told me, "Babe, I danced!" He pulled it off and got a sale. He never ceases to amaze me. He has been doing even better since I have been with him too, I try to take good care of him. It is the least I can do right now. He is working his butt off out on the doors all day and I am very grateful. I don't know how he does it.  I love him so much. He is such a hard worker. I appreciate all that he does. He always keeps me smiling.  Thanks Chad.

The Ogden 1/2 Marathon

Before The Race. It was cool out side.
The Proud Ogden 1/2 Marathon Finishers
Finished: 02:00:36 Stacy

Finished: 2:04:32 Trisha
Finished: 2:42:51 Sharlena

Yesterday Me and my sisters Sharlena, Trisha and my friend Heather Tanner ran the Ogden 1/2 Marathon which is 13.2 miles. It was so sweet. We ran down Ogden Canyon, it was beautiful scenery running past Pine view Reservoir, the river and waterfalls. I loved it. It really was such a great experience, for a first 1/2 marathon. I am so proud that we did it. My goal was just to finish but then I set to finish in 2 hours and 1o minutes tops. I beat my goal, I finished in 2 hours and 36 sec. I was ranked in 23rd place out of 83 girls in my age group, not bad for my first 1/2 marathon. I am pleased with how well that I did. I am glad that I finished in 2 hours. I was hoping that I would and I did. It helped that the run was a slight decline the whole way. I could feel the gravity pulling me down the canyon and the wind was blowing behind me. It was such a beautiful day too, perfect weather. It was cold starting out, it was about 43 degrees but we warmed up quickly. The race started at 7 in the morning. It was nice to have Dave, Sharlena's husband there to drop us off, so we waited in the car for a bit so we didn't have to chill in the cold for an hour. I was flying at the start of the race, the first 5 miles went by so fast. I was trying to keep up with Heather, she was flying a lot faster than I expected. I later had to slow down, I didn't train to run that fast, we were running at about an 8 1/2 minute mile pace. I don't know what Heather was on. She was cruising. She finished in 19th place at 1:58. I was way impressed. Go Heather! I will catch her next time, and yes there will be a next time. I hope to keep doing this.Trisha finished at 2:04 and Shar finished at 2:42. I am so proud of us all. Congrats Girls!! This was quite an accomplishment for us. We have come a long ways. I am glad to be done, but look forward to next years. I recommend this marathon to anybody. Ogden does know how to do it. It has great food afterwards, water, gatorade and pick me up foods all along the way, the route is very beautiful, and it is very organized. Well worth it.

I lucked out and didn't walk away with any blisters. I was in pretty good shape just a little soreness. My left knee hurt a bit, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would. The race wasn't nearly has hard as I thought it would be either. I heard that this one is a good one to start with. It was really nice. The last three miles were the hardest for me, but I got through it. The last mile was the hardest by far and the finish line couldn't come soon enough. I wanted to pick up the pace on the last mile but it was so hard to find the energy. I finally sprinted the last 1/4 of the mile across the finish line. It meant a lot to see my Dad there cheering us on, on the side of the road. I saw him and Dave at about the 1oth mile. I saw my mom and Buck afterwards. We had great family support.

Afterwards My sisters and I had a day of relaxation and pampering. It felt so nice. We did a little shopping at the Mall, got a massage and a pedicure and then went to dinner at Tepanyaki, so yummy. We needed it, and it was all well deserved. By the end of the night we couldn't walk very well. I noticed that it hurt to walk down the stairs. We looked like we were in pain. Trisha made me laugh when I saw her walk. All of our hard work paid off. It was well worth it.

We are recovering. Today my knee is much better, but every muscle and every part of my legs are sore, but it is not a painful sore, which is good. I thought that I would be more sore than I am. I am relieved that I am not.

Graduation Ceremony

A UVU Graduate
The Proud Parents
Karlee, Trisha, and Sharlena
 The Health Ed. Girls with my Favorite Professor, Lori Richards

Tia Jones and I. 

I had a great graduation ceremony. It was a rememberable moment. It was neat to hear President Monson speak at the commencement. I saw Pres. Eyring and Pres. Uchdorft too. I enjoyed seeing my college classmates, friends again. It was good to officially celebrate. Now the real learning begins. I have a lot to look forward to and I am excited for what the future may bring.