the little dog

I can't believe I forgot to include this picture in yesterday's blog. I guess better late than never, right?

Ameya is not a big fan of the car.  She runs back and forth from passenger to driver to back seat and back for quite some time before she settles down. Eventually she burrows somewhere - normally in the blanket or coat pile in the back seat. On our ride out to Denver, I had a pillow and my jacket by my feet and she burrowed there for a while. This was taken in a moment of her checking on us before burrowing back down. 

Man do we love that dog!

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Ours was joyfully spent in Denver with Hunter's parents this year. It was full of family, food, friends, and don't forget the food poisoning. haha. We started out our trip with lunch at Cherry Cricket with the Marican's. We have heard raving reviews about this place and it was also featured on Man vs. Food, one of Hunter's favorite shows. The food was delightful. However, this is where the food poisoning comes in. It wasn't severe, but one of the girls that went with us got sick and so did I. Luckily it was short lived and I was ready to feast the next day. 

Here is a picture of the smorgusboard we got to feast on:

Yummy, yes?

That was basically all we did Thursday. We woke up, ate breakfast, watched some Community, then ate some more. That night we met up with the Marican's at Wal Mart for some pre-Black Friday shopping. I will confess that this is the first time I have really black friday shopped. While I was beginning to regret our decision as we were being swarmed by people, the goods we left with more than made up for it and might have even convinced me that it's okay to go again. They had $1.96 DVDs and $5 and $10 Blu rays and TV series. We left with 4 seasons of 24, 8 blu rays, and 1 DVD. We easily saved at least $100.

Friday was filled with more shopping (much less crowded than it was the night before) and dinner at Texas De Brazil. It was a delightful restaurant very similar to Tucanos. Hunter's goal was to gain 10 pounds between the Thanksgiving day feast and the Brazillian Churrascaria. Unfortunately, he didn't quite make it. He did get close though. 

Ameya spent the week playing with Hunter's parent's dogs. She has a tendency to pick fights, truth be told. She likes to have things her way and will let you know when she thinks anything is inappropriate, as previously discussed. She did quite enjoy herself and wrestled around with one of them the whole time. They both wore themselves out sufficiently, in fact, Ameya has been sleeping all day to make up for all her playing.

On Saturday we let the little dog run. Hunter's parents hadn't seen her since she was a little puppy and watching her run is pretty incredible. She is fast, fast, fast. These are some action shots. 

We ended the evening watching Contagion with Hunter's parents. We both really like that movie, and Bill and Lark gave it good reviews as well. We finished the trip up on Sunday with Sacrament meeting and a quick lunch before the drive home. 

Thank you, Paddocks, for a great week!

The Ultimate Weekend

Yes, that is a picture of me on the ultimate frisbee field. Yes, I actually played in the tournament in Grand Junction this last weekend. Be proud people, really proud. haha. Please take note of my awesome hot pink cleats.

It was actually more by chance that I ended up playing. They didn't have enough girls to play on the second team (not the team that Hunter was playing on) that came from Salt Lake and because I played fall league, they all knew I was capable and called on my mad frisbee skills (or something like that...). I had a lot more fun than I expected and the odds of me playing in another tournament are greater than before. 

Because I was playing and not on the same team as Hunter, we didn't actually get any pictures of him playing this weekend. In the spirit of the post though, I thought I would include this one. It is from the Halloween tournament from a couple weeks ago. 

In case any one was wondering, a day and a half straight of Ultimate Frisbee = really sore abs and legs. 

My Obsession: Food

I have an obsession with food. I've always rather enjoyed food, but recently it has come far more to the forefront of my life. I'm sure this has to with my recent spike in cooking/baking. It's a love hate relationship that I have with food though. We are currently in a hate cycle, allow me to explain why.

I wish I could subsist entirely off of baked goods and ice cream. I don't only have a sweet tooth, I'm pretty sure I have a whole mouth full of sweet teeth. I would far prefer a cookie, brownie, some sort of pumpkin/banana bread, cake, or cupcake over any sort of savory food. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good meal to be certain, but dessert is always the best part. I'm sure that this is why I prefer baking to cooking.

This is also where the hate part of my relationship with food stems from. I strongly dislike choosing things to make for dinner. Whenever I look through food blogs or cookbooks, I always stray to the desserts - mainly because they are what sound good to me. Choosing food that will satisfy both me and Hunter? Way to big of a chore to enjoy. Not all the time, only when food and I are on the outs. It would be a wonderful thing if there was a button we could push that would make us full - giving us all the nutrients that we get from not dessert foods - so we could skip the dinner and move straight to the dessert....every meal. I'm pretty sure Hunter wouldn't complain all that much. I'd even still eat breakfast - cereal, oatmeal, waffles, french toast - all yummy sweet foods.

If only this could become my reality. Life would be so much easier and tastier, not to mention sweeter.

Giveaway!

A few weeks ago I was emailed about an opportunity to host a giveaway on this blog. Needless to say, I was quite surprised but also curious and excited. After doing my research and learning all that I could about it I decided it was a go. So, here is the schpeal...

The product is digital scrapbooking software. It is in my nature to be a bit of a skeptic. But as it turns out, this is a pretty incredible product. I am not a big scrapbooker, lets be honest here. The extent of my scrapbooking is this blog. It provides me a way to record things that happen and include pictures. I have a feeling that will be changing in the near future though. After looking through and using this software, it is pretty simple and very effective. I can record our memories in a way that is easy, quick, and cutely designed. It is a win win situation.

To further drive my point home, the following is a copy of one of the pages I made. Allow me to give you a little context for the page: when we first got married, I made a little photo album (I guess you could even call it scrapbook!) of our story. It is a fun little keepsake and I decided to do one every year and give it to Hunter on our anniversary (or close to). Our book total is now 2. haha. I think my method of preparing the book may be changing this year, thanks to MyMemories. This is a page out of the book that will be completed next September (even a little sneak peak for Hunter!). So, if you click on it to make it bigger and read it, that is why it is written like I am talking to Hunter, or telling a story to someone.

If you win this giveaway, a copy of the scrapbooking software can be all yours FOR FREE! Are you excited yet? You probably should be. All you need to do is go to the website, http://www.mymemories.com/, find you favorite digital scrapbooking kit and leave the name of it in a comment on this post. The deadline for this is next Wednesday, November 9 so be sure to leave my your comment soon!

For those of you that don't win, don't worry, you aren't completely out of luck. If you look on the right side of my blog there is now a link for $10 off the software. You just have to copy and paste the code right above the link and put it in when you place your order.

Happy scrapbooking everyone!