Murder Mystery Party

     For the past two years Paul and I have done a Murder Mystery party with our friends for Halloween. Last year it was 1920's Chicago Caper themed. This year, we had a Hawaiian Luau! It was a hoot, thats for sure! Because Paul and I did a Hawaiian Luau wedding reception, we had TONS of decorations to deck out our apartment with. By the time we took the pictures all our awesome decorations died, but before everyone came over they looked pretty cool! :)
    We have made really good friends with our neighbors just up the sidewalk from us, Ray and Shay Martel. They introduced us to the Ada and Dion Munk, (who used to live right by us also), and Aaron and Taylor Remer. We have developed some awesome friendships with these three couples so, when you get all of us together, there is no telling what will happen. Paul and I thought that it would crazy fun if all of us were together trying to solve a murder.
     Paul got to dress up like a hawaiian tourist, I was a native Hawaiian hula dancer, Shay was a bodacious swimsuit model, Ray was a surfer dude, Taylor was a ridiculously rich, fancy woman, and Aaron was Chief Wiki-Wiki. You can guess by his name that he was the island chief right? Anyway, the food was great, the company was great, and it was so fun to see how everyone got into their characters. By the end of the night, we had a murderer, it was one of our six guests, but I am so not going to give it away. If you want to know who was the killer, you gotta play the game!

      This is the whole crew all together! Don't we look like a crazy bunch of people? 

A few days before Halloween Paul and I decided to carve our pumpkin. We had grown our beautiful pumpkin in our garden and had waited a few months to be able to carve it. Anyway, we were having a hard time deciding what to carve. Paul wanted one thing I wanted another. Finally, we came to an agreement which involved bringing out the geeky-ness in both of us.

      Two hours later our beautiful masterpiece was complete. It wasn't as perfect as we wanted it to be, but it was still pretty sweet!

Bringing Home the BABY!

       As some of you may know, Paul and I found out that we were expecting in late August. We were told our little bundle of joy would be joining our family Mid October. With so little time to prepare for the arrival, we had to work quickly to get all of our preparations in order.
      Two months later we drove to Salt Lake for the long awaited edition to our cute little family. We went into labor at about 10:15 on Saturday morning. Thankfully it wasn't as bad or long as we were expecting! An hour and fifteen minutes later we had our beautiful baby!
      Name and gender are soon to come, but look at this, isn't it beautiful?

Family Picture Fiasco

       I have been bugging Paul for the longest time to take family pictures and even though we don't have kids yet, I thought it would be fun to take some pictures of our cute little family. Paul hasn't been too thrilled about the idea of pictures, but several weeks ago we were shopping for clothes and Paul found the perfect shirt to wear for pictures. I was kind of excited because after that I knew he was on board!
      I asked Paul's amazing cousin Nicole to take our pictures, and we set a date. As over done as it is, I really wanted to take pictures up the canyon with the changing fall leaves; and even though it snowed up the canyon the night before, I was still determined to get those fall pictures taken.
      Paul had never been up Cedar Canyon to the place where I wanted to take pictures, so we drove around a little bit looking for places where we wanted to take pictures. We kept driving up and up and up until we had pretty much gotten to the top of the canyon and started going down the other side. (Might I add in that whilst we were driving up and up and up we splashed through at least three ginormous puddles that repainted the truck brown!) Anyway, at that point we decided it would be a good idea to turn around and go back to the picture sites that we thought were really good. We flipped a U turn and started going up so we could go back down the canyon. We were started up a semi flat hill when the truck just slowly died. Power was still on, the radio was running, but the engine turned off for some reason! Of course I was dressed in super cute clothes, and shoes that couldn't really get muddy, and of course the truck happened to die right in the middle of a huge puddle of dirt and snow; so naturally Paul got to get out and look under the hood to see what the problem was. Nicole and I tried to make the best of the situation by taking some silly pictures.

     While he was checking things out, I was frantically trying to get service on my phone. When Paul got back into the truck with no news, I was trying not to psych myself out. We were in the middle of no where, no cell service, no clue what was wrong, and no clue as to when the next person would drive along. We couldn't think of anything else to do but pray. After our prayer we tried to start the car. It didn't start. We tried to push the truck enough to get to a down hill so we could coast, and that didn't really work either. So we sat and waited, hoping and praying that some kind soul would drive along and want to tow us.
     About fifteen minutes later our prayers were answered! Someone came driving down the road. We flagged them down and asked so nicely if they would tow us down the mountain. Paul and the boy
from the other car hooked up the tow straps and we started off. After five minutes of us being towed, Paul attempted to start the truck and... it started! We waved our saviors down and told them that the truck started and had been running for a good 5 minutes or so, so we told them they didn't have to take us all the way back down the mountain. After we unhooked the tow straps and waved our goodbyes, we continued down the mountain as well. Since we hadn't taken our family pictures yet we decided we might as well do it since we were up there already.
       Paul pulled the truck off to the side of the road at a cute spot and turned her off. We took some really great pictures and then loaded back into the truck to move on to the next picture spot. When Paul tried to start the truck it wouldn't start... AGAIN! As you can guess we felt like idiots for not towing the truck all the way down when we had the chance. We were on a pretty good sized hill so we gave the truck a little push and coasted down the mountain.

      We still had a few spots that we wanted to take pictures at, so we coasted to them, made sure the truck was sitting at the top of a down hill, and got out to take pictures. Nicole Golden did a fabulous job  with our pictures. They all turned out really great. Anyway, after we had taken all the pictures we wanted to up the canyon, we prepared ourselves for the adventure we would have as we tried to get back down the canyon. The road was steep enough that we were able to start coasting down without pushing the truck at all. We actually sped up to at least 30mph, the problem with that was, the brakes were really tight and the steering wheel was tight as well so we couldn't turn or slow down very well. We hit a flat spot where there were cows in the road. We couldn't slow down or we could get stuck on the flat spot. We prayed that the cows would stay put and also that no cars would be coming the opposite direction of us so we could drive on the wrong side of the road to get around the cows. We successfully passed them and continued down the mountain. Pretty sure we may have hit a bird in the process though, because it seriously flew right in front of the truck!
     When we got to the section of the road that T-bones we were hoping that there wouldn't be any traffic coming so we could coast right through a stop sign and not lose momentum. When we got to the split, there were at least 6 cars coming in either direction. We stopped the truck and waited for traffic to clear. Since we stopped on a flat spot, the truck wasn't going to move anywhere without help. Nicole and I jumped out of the truck and started pushing from behind. When we had achieved a pretty decent speed we jumped in the back of the truck so we could keep up the trucks speed.
       Clearly I wasn't thinking about the weather when I jumped out of the truck to push, because I left my coat in the car. While we were coasting down the last half of the canyon I was freezing in the back of the truck! When we got closer to the bottom, a cop pulled up behind us and started following us. Nicole and I flipped out a little bit because we weren't sure if we were going to get in trouble for sitting in the back of a pickup while driving down a highway. We pulled into the canyon park parking lot and the cop just kept on driving. *phewf* dodged that bullet!
       When we started driving up the canyon this morning we had no idea what sort of an adventure we were going to have. Can't say that having a car break down is an adventure I would want to have again, but it sure was something that I won't forget!

Here are some of the amazingly cute pictures that Nicole Golden took for us!

Conference Weekend

Paul and I thought it would be really fun to spend general conference with our families in Salt Lake. We also thought it would be fun to take our neighbor Angelica and her son Gavin with us. Little did we know how eventful of a weekend we were going to have!

My dad gets season tickets to the BYU home games, and Friday the 5th there was a BYU game that Paul wanted to go to. Because Angelica and Gavin were coming to SLC with us we all decided to go to the game together. Paul bought me a legit BYU shirt and Paul, Angelica, and Gavin all wore theirs so we looked like an awesome bunch. The game was quite intense. Neither of the teams did well on the offense, but they both played a heck of a defense. We were sitting right in front of some hard core USU fans who were yelling and screaming at my dad for no reason, (probably because he is really good at cheering on his Alma Mater). I took it upon myself to yell louder than them for BYU every time they were trying to cheer on USU, (my lack of voice three days later has been an awesome reminder). Thankfully BYU won. It was a close game with an ending score of 6-3.

After the game (12 A.M.), we all drove up to Paul's parents to get some shut eye before our crazy Saturday. When we arrived at his parents house, the front room was filled with an air mattress and lots of pillows and blankets. Paul and I were to sleep on the air mattress in the middle of the family room, Peter, (Paul's brother), would be sleeping in the family room also, but on the couch, we stuck Angelica and Gavin in the spare bedroom down the hall, and poor Jessica, (Peter's fiance), was banned to the basement to sleep. We also had Paul's parents in their room, and Eric, Amanda, Sage, and Milo crammed into the basement as well. Needless to say, the Burnett house was literally a full house!

Saturday morning I convinced Julie and Jessica to go running with me. We took a lovely, leisurely, 3 mile run around the park before breakfast. Rex prepared a fabulous breakfast, after which, we all sat down to watch conference. After the first session of conference, (which was amazing by the way), we took Angelica and Gavin to Temple Square to see the sights and ride Trax. We parked at City Creek and walked around the mall for just a little bit before we went to the temple. Angelica had never ridden Trax, so we jumped on and got off at the next station just so she could say that she had been on Trax. We had to walk further to the temple than we would have if we hadn't ridden the Trax, but it was kind of a fun experience with them.

While we were at the temple I felt the Spirit so strong. It was so amazing! I was trying so hard not to cry in front of everyone but my feelings were so profound I had to wipe away a few tears. We walked down the street where all the protesters were to get to the North Visitors Center. Also on that street, amidst the protesters, many LDS people lined the sidewalk and quietly sang hymns to peacefully counter the protestors. We walked right through the make shift choir, and the spirit that was there was even more amazing I had felt before. When we got to the visitors center, we made sure to show Angelica and Gavin the Christas statue. That was the climax of my spiritual day. I could not look at that amazing statue of Christ and not cry. I had had a really heavy heart all week, and seeing that statue immediately lifted my heavy heart and gave me a very strong reminder of how much my Savior really does love me.

When we got back from SLC we watched the second session of conference and went to dinner. While the boys went to priesthood session I played with Gavin and Sage in the back yard for a while and then held baby Milo for another little while. I also painted toenails with my awesome sister-in-law to be Jessica. When the boys got back we watched the Avengers (which I had not yet seen, and it is INCREDIBLE!) and then went to bed.

Sunday we watched the first session of conference with the Burnett's, then went to my parents house and went for a drive up Butterfield Canyon. It is a family tradition of mine to drive up the canyon during the fall conference and look at the leaves changing colors. Tyson and Yulia came up and so we were all one big family minus Tanner who is still in Peru. We drove up to the top of Kennicott and looked down at the mines. We goofed off, like our family usually does, and listened to conference.

I thought it would be a really good idea while most of our family was together to take a family picture. We didn't have an experience photographer with us, but with the amazing skills of Angelica, we were able to get some pretty awesome family pictures.

After our drive, we made delicious lasagna and played some games with my family then headed back to Cedar City. We promised Angelica that we would be home before 11PM and true to our word we got back to Cedar at 10:45. We had an amazing weekend full of lots of spiritual food. I am so grateful for the gospel. I am a Mormon! I know it, I live it, I love it!

One Hectic Week!

Last post I wrote I said that I was going to be better at blogging and, for this week at least, I am sticking to my word! Paul and I had a very crazy week. With work, and school, and clubs, and callings we maybe saw each other a few hours each day.

Monday for FHE Paul took me golfing. On Monday nights at the Cedar golf course you can get 2 people in for the price of one. We ended up taking my cousin Brytt, Paul's cousin Nicole, and one of Nicoles friends named Emily. All three of us girls had never golfed before, but we were excited to try. We started on hole 9 and it took us a while to get through the first hit. The manager of the golf course came and told us that it might be more fun if we played scramble and hit off the best hit ball. We figured that would be the best way to go unless we wanted to be playing golf for the next 12 hours. We didn't get all the way through 9 holes before it got dark, but we got through at least 5 of them. The boys were a little bummed we didn't golf more. But as far as the girls were concerned, just driving the golf cart was enough to keep us entertained.

Thursday was another chaotic day. Apart from our regular daily activities of work and school, Paul had an accounting social where McGladrey came up and gave a presentation about their company. I went up to the SUU cabin with Paul to attend this fancy dealio. It was kind of interesting to hear what the company had to say. They gave us a lot of insight about their company and I really feel like that could be a good company for Paul to work for. Guess we will see what happens. After the presentation, we hurried down the canyon to get to our softball game that started at 9:30 PM. We play on a co-ed city league and haven't won a game yet. We thought that this week would be the week we won. We played an amazing game. We hit hard, fielded well, and had an amazing pitcher, (Paul was pitching). With 6 seconds on the clock we got our third out and had to start a new inning. The team then scored 6 to win the game by one point! It was so stinking frustrating to have six seconds on the clock, be ahead by 5, then just lose. But all in all it was the best game our team has played so we were ok with the ending.

Saturday we did a hike with the young men and young women of our ward. We hiked up to Kanarraville falls. Kanarraville is a really pretty hike up and through a slot canyon that takes you to a waterfall that is basically like a water slide. It has been pretty cold in Cedar lately so I kinda thought that the water would be a little chilly, and boy was it! Most of the hike was uneventful. We got up to the waterfall and only two leaders got in the water. The group went up to a higher waterfall, but I stayed behind with one of our young women that got hurt. When they met us back down at the lower waterfall I sucked it up and went down the slide. I had to show the young women that I was no wussy! The rest of the hike down I was freezing! But eventually when we got out of the slots and into the sun I started to warm up a little bit more. When we got back from the hike, Paul and I ran to our garden, did a little shopping, then came home and canned some peaches and tomatoes. He asked me to watch the BYU UofU game with him. I have to say it was a frustratingly intense game. It was good, but there were times where I really wanted to pull my hair out. It is a bummer that BYU lost, but at the end they played a good game.




This week really has been crazy, but the little things make it all worth while!

Labor Day and More!

I made a promise to myself that I was going to be a better blogger so that my blog posts are not complete novels, but I just get caught up in the flow of life and get so busy that I forget to keep things updated. Today's post will probably a long one, but from here on out I really will try to keep them short...er.

August was full of lots of crazy adventures, but now that it is September, school is in full blow, and the adventures Paul and I have are more like trying to stay alive, get things done, and still see each other every once in a while. I started teaching school on the 16th of August. With it being my second year of teaching I wasn't as nervous to start as I was last year. I felt more prepared for the year, and I felt like I actually had some idea of what my year would be like so I could anticipate what I would be getting myself into. Paul didn't start school until August 27, but our lives still felt hectic and crazy. Paul is enjoying his senior year of college. His classes are a little tough but he can do it. He is keeping himself busy with his classes, working for the auditing department at SUU, participating in the various clubs he is in, and being in the young men.

Now that September is in full swing I just have to say that all those families that both work and have kids are amazing because I don't have time to take care of my house and I don't even have kids yet!

We decided that since life was crazy we needed a little bit of a vacation. For Labor day weekend we made plans to meet Paul's cousin Summer and her husband Tyler at their families beach house in Newport, California. On our way to California we drove through a monsoon. I literally had my life flash before my eyes. In less than 3 seconds we went from light rain to 0% visibility, huge wind gusts, and pouring rain. I am so glad Paul was driving because I am pretty sure if I was, I would have closed my eyes and prayed that I would magically make it though. We had to pull over to the side of the road and wait it out. Thankfully everyone else on the road did the same thing.


We got to California with huge plans to go boogie boarding and play on the beach the whole time. But sadly on Saturday the waves were so big and scary that we chickened out. The life guards on the beach proclaimed it a yellow flag day which means be cautious in the water. We tried a few waves, but the riptide was so strong and the waves were so big that we decided our lives were more important than catching a few waves. I kid you not, the waves were anywhere from 3 to 12 feet high. More of them falling into the 10 foot category! Instead of hanging out on the beach, we took advantage of some of the down time and walked the shops and played games. We taught Summer and Tyler how to play hand and foot and we played that game seriously all weekend.

Sunday we enjoyed going to church in the Newport ward and then spent the day playing games, reading, and sitting in the sand. Summer and I spent a few hours enjoying our books by the ocean side. The boys thought bocce ball was a better way to spend their day. Summer and I attempted to play a few games with them but the boys were definitely better at bocce ball than we were. 

Monday we figured we would have more of a chance to play in the water, but when we got to the beach the waves were still around 10 feet high!  The flag had changed to red, which we were bummed about, but every once in a while a small wave would come in. Paul, Summer, and I tried to catch a few waves and we did, but they weren't as good as they could have been. We had to stand in the water and wait for a set of smaller waves to come in. It was a little scary seeing the big sets of waves come in, and wash over us, but we held strong so that we were ready when the smaller waves came in. 

I am pleased to admit that Paul and I did get at least 10 good rides on the boogie boards. We figured we would just have to wait until next year and hope that the waves will be better.

There is a restaurant in Newport that Paul and I are rather fond of. We have made a tradition of going there with Summer and Tyler every time we visit Newport. The restaurant is called BJ's. They have the best deep dish pizza I have ever had in my life! BJ's is also the most amazing place to get a pazookie (pizza cookie with delicious ice cream). Anyway, the point behind that was to tell you that the pizza really is fantastic and amazing. I mean look at that picture. The pizza is like eating pie its so deep dished! MMMM!

On Tuesday we all got up early to go and do a session at the Newport temple. It was a really good experience, and I am grateful that we took the time to visit the temple.

 We planned on playing at the beach again, but the waves were still huge, and the flag was still red. We didn't want to waist time waiting for maybe one good wave so instead we got the beach house all cleaned up and played a few games before heading home. 

Thankfully the trip home was uneventful. The weather was fine, the car drove great, and we got home faster than we thought. 

Our vacation was much needed but it has been nice to get back into the swing of our normal lives. 

Until next time! 

Rain Rain Rain!!

Cedar City has had a SUPER dry winter and summer. We seriously did not get a single drop of rain between the months of May-mid June. But as soon as July hit, we have had rain for almost 3 weeks straight! Most of the time the rain is here and gone in a matter of minutes, or it is a slow drizzle that will hang out for a while but not really rain much water, but today, holy cow it POURED cats and dogs!


Paul and I went out to our garden to do some weeding, but half way though we started to get drenched. We ran back to the car and decided that unless we wanted to wade through the mud, it was a good time to head home. Since it was seriously pouring rain we figured by the time we got home it would stop and the sun would be out, but when we got home it was raining harder than it was at the garden! The road was flooded and water a foot deep was all up and down the street! We just had to go out and play in it!