March 2013- Welcomes Spring

We love the taste of spring. Most of March Brad has been recovering from Endoscopic surgery and we are hoping he will soon be back to normal after months of sinus infections. But that didn't stop us from our usual traditions. We both filled out March Madness brackets and two of Mary's teams made it to the final four! Brad's teams didn't do so great. We celebrated our Irish ancestry with the St. Patricks day festival where we enjoyed Irish Lamb Stew, Corn Beef & Cabbage, and Apple Beers. The music and weather was perfect.

Mom celebrated her 63rd birthday and we had a surprise party for her with Name That Tune as our entertainment. Dad's Team won- though because it turns out Brad is a "ringer"

Then Erica and I celebrated a week off from school with a trip to St. George. We stayed with Marce (the best b&b) and hiked zions, and biked near Santa Clara up to some petroglyphs, and then had a day at the "beach". Erica and I always have the best stories after spring break. Some of the highlights- taking the bus all over zions- whoops. Regular stops for a diet coke and fig newtons??? Me:"How do you have all that liquid in you!!!", Marce makes the best meatballs and randomly has a lifetime supply of tampons. Gentleman Deserve Dessert "I think my 6 ft 2, 200 lb husband is afraid of me"  Erica + Mary+ Biking Foreign trail= LOST- uh how do we get back to our car Random lady: "take a right onto the highway and bike to china" Finding the Biggest Loser Ranch while biking back to Santa Clara, "So..are we in Santa Clara California or Utah" "Take a minute and think of the map" "Oh..."  

 And the highlight of the month was- Angie sending me this pic of Dixie. Her auntie does love her very very much.

February 2013- Thirty, Flirty & Thriving

It's so fun to have a birthday month, everything is a little brighter in the middle of winter to celebrate your birthday! This year we had many parties to celebrate, and enjoyed a few dinners out, and celebrated once again at Keys on Main. When I was getting my nails done the girl asked when I graduated and when I told her 2001 she was aghast and said she for sure thought I was her age- 24. That made my day and hers due to her great tip. So my theme for this next year of my life is Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving. I have accomplished quite a bit in my 20s and have had already amazing adventures and experiences in my young life. I am excited for a new decade to celebrate life and the new opportunities and adventures that await.

January - baby it's cold outside

This month we have tried to stay warm and not get sick like most of our fellow Utahns.It has been fun though to see all the snow in the valley (12 inches in one snow storm). Brad especially likes the icecicles. Fortunately the flu has stayed away but unfortunately we discovered Brad has been having a severe sinus infection since September! He is on his 4th round of heavy antibiotics so hopefully it will go away soon. Despite the chronic congestion, bad air, the snow, and extra cold temperatures we have been out enjoying U of U basketball games and gymnastic meets, hockey games, dinner with friends, and game nights. The Super Bowl was especially fun this year because the power went out during the game and Forrest would mimic my cheers or boos. Brad of course could not forget to make his Super Bowl guacamole and Jon treated us with some homemade scones (oh the joys of have family that enjoy making treats!) The most memorable January event though was... going the the Sundance Film Festival with friends. We saw a huge crowd around a restaurant where Katherine Heigle and Kathy Ireland were spotted. We had lunch at Flanagans Irish Pub and the food and dessert were delicious. In our favorite bookstore with the cats behind the Chocolate Factory we found the cats were replaced with 2 new kittens. I almost bought Austenland for me and Angie to see what the hype is all about (the movie was sold out before the festival started) but decided to wait for it at the library. I started teaching my second class at University of Phoenix and am now considered an official instructor/facilitator and Brad's students again seem to really like him. This will be a fun semester.

December 2012

Christmas was lovely! We hosted a few gatherings and attended many parties. It seems the thing we enjoyed most were the music and lights, maybe just the warm feeling of it all. Christmas (we celebrate all through December) brings a special warmth to the winter. It's fun to walk in the snow and shops and look at lights and be with friends and family. We feel so blessed to have all that we do. We especially enjoyed renewing the old tradition of the ZCMI candy windows, shopping for our special Christmas ornament at City Creek, and finding the Hindi paper lantern at temple square. New Years was unexpectedly quiet for us though, poor Brad was sick and we watched a marathon of movies and I made him Ryan's famous Manhattan clam chowder. Welcome 2013!

 

November 2012

This November we went to our first football game together and decided every year to go to at least one (whatever team). It was fun though to cheer for the Utes this year, even though they lost the game it was very close and that always makes it fun.

Nothing else eventful happened in November besides my first class started with University of Phoenix, it has been a learning curve going from student to professional to professor. However, I was given excellent feedback from my Phoenix mentor and the students seem to be learning a lot and enjoying the class.

Thanksgiving also brought a new family tradition for us- football & a hike in the morning before dinner. I watched the parade with mom while Brad playing in a Turkeybowl and then we did our own football game and went on a hike. It was great to exercise and play before a big heavy dinner. A definite Dennis family tradition to continue.

 

And now we are ready to enjoy the holidays!

 

 

September-October 2012

September will be hallmarked as a "watershed" month as Brad calls it. We both had some incredible experiences that will forever change our lives (for the good). 2012 has been quite the year and for most of September we were both singing the song "Wake me up when September Ends" But like everything else September passed and we are stronger and happier because of it. 

October flew by, starting with Josh & Mary's wedding festivities and then ending with Halloween. The Arcadia SPED staff and I dressed up as The Village People (YMCA) and for the 4th year led the parade.

 The Grumpy Couple

 The Happy Couple

 Green was the memo

Aug- 2012

This past month has been quite busy with the start of school. Brad is teaching 2 classes up at the U of U and I finished my orientation with the University of Phoenix and am now preparing for my first college teaching experience. Our garden keeps growing and growing. We obviously planted too much for our space and the plants are fighting for space. The spaghetti squash has definitely taken out the peppers and early on the cucumber plant. It would have overtaken the tomatoes if we didn't keep cutting it back. So imagine the surprise when one day we looked out the window to see this

The spaghetti squash started growing up through the tree onto the roof and now we have squash growing like bananas!

It has been a flourishing garden.

August was also fun to spend time with family. 

We took half of our nephews and nieces on a hike. Compared to the boys Lindsey was slow but made it.

Mom, me, and Angie enjoyed a girls lunch at Gourmandies- yum