The Wonderful World of...

I am an ENORMOUS Harry Potter fan. I grew up with the books from the age of eleven and have plenty to say on the movies. And I am thoroughly entertained with the recent opening of the Wonderful World of Harry Potter amusement park that just opened in Orlando. It sounds fantastic. There are three or four rollercoasters, a recreation of the village of Hogsmeade, complete with actual shops, and pubs where you can taste a cold mug of the ever-so-enticing Butterbeer. (Which the author of this article explains it as: "It foams like a Guiness, goes down like a Cream Soda.") Sounds good to me! Someday I will pay my Harry Potter fan homage to Orlando and see the ultimate fan's dream of a park. For now it is just a dream, a vacation in planning. :)

So, we've been wrapped up in the usual affairs of school and work, but found some time to go down to Daniel's parents house in Idaho Falls. Daniel has had a hankering for some authenic Mexican food, which I do not know how to make. Our first attempt was for Tacos Al Pastor. I checked out a couple fancy recipes and thought we could actually do this. Winco in Idaho Falls is notorious for its large amount of Mexican food, so I thought for certain we could find everything we needed. Not so much. We were on the hunt for achiote paste--no where to be found. If we had had more time we would have gone done to the Mexican grocery store, but we settled with a long conversation with a Mexican worker at Winco. He explained what else he thought we could use. (Daniel spoke to him the whole time in Spanish, and I was SO proud of myself for asking a full question in Spanish "Donde esta la tienda?") Sunday came and we kinda sorta winged the recipe a little, but everything was looking good.

Daniel's dad grilled strips of pork, pineapple (FAVORITE) and red onions.

Daniel chopped everything up to go inside our tacos.

And voila! Our sweet and spicy tacos were complete with homemade guacomole and pico de gallo(salsa). Delicious!! Still not as good as the street vendors in Mexico, but I think we did pretty well for a first attempt! This week I'm trying out Posole, a soup/stew like thing with pork. Sure sounds like I know what I'm talking about, right?

This weekend was Daniel's BIRTHDAY! Happy 23 spouse! He was very happy to receive a Paul Millsap throw-back jersey and a video game from me, and lots of shopping money from his parents and mine. So we had previously arranged for a little trip down to Salt Lake for shopping, food, and relaxation.

Unfortunately the weather was icky, but we still had tons of fun. We stayed at the Hyatt, which always is great for us. Friday night we went out to eat at Rodizio Grill, which is an authenic Brazilian restaurant. So much fun! You just sit at your table while they bring you all-you-can-eat food! They have various types of meats they bring around on giant spits that they just shave off to your dining pleasure. Accompanied by a yummy salad bar, needless to say we left there EXTREMELY full. But we did stop at the chocolate shop for a treat afterwards.

Our personal favorites......Italian Sodas.

My personal favorite: GRILLED PINEAPPLE! Delicious.

Saturday we went to a session at the Salt Lake Temple, which was amazing. Then we ate MORE, if you can believe it. We went to the Red Iguana for some authenic Mexican food. And their food was also delicious. We ate a ridiculous amount of enchiladas, chimis, taquitos, chips and salsa, etc. etc. Holy cow. And then they gave us free sopapillas for Daniel's birthday, but we took those home. No way either of us could eat another bite.

Saturday night we made it home for Daniel's parents to take us to Texas Rhodehouse (keep in mind Daniel and I have done nothing but eat excessively and drive...still super full). So we ate...again. Then we went to see Robin Hood. I fell asleep due to my overeating. Good show.

Sunday we had another large meal and of course ice cream birthday cake! (I'm still full as I write this very moment)

The end. We had an excellent weekend full (and I mean full) of good food, shopping, and family. It was a much needed break from our usual routines. Come Monday we will be back on schedule.

Our New Crib

We are horrible bloggers. :)


After two long and painful days we successfully moved into our new apartment! We love it! It has so much more space than our old apartment. We have a grand total of five windows. Compared to our previous two, it seems like a LOT more sunshine, which makes me very happy. We like our new ward and our awesome friends live in the building next to ours. We live by the park, and close enough to Daniel's work that he can walk. This was definitely a good move.

Here is our living room before--Daniel is cleaning his tax-return present.

Here is our bedroom.

The Kitchen

TA DA!! Here is our lovely bedroom.

Kitchen- Love it.

Living Room.

Bathroom.

Living room again

Such a great apartment. We really love it here, and hope to be here for the rest of our time in Rexburg. Moving is such a PAIN. Thankfully, we are all settled in and super happy.

Nothing really new or exciting going on here--Daniel has started up school again. He really likes his classes. I've started my internship at the Museum of Idaho and so far it's not all what I thought it would be.... we'll see how it goes.

That's all for now. We'll let you know if anything else semi-exciting happens in our happy little lives. :)

Friends, Hippies, and Broken Cars

It surely was an adventurous weekend for us. The plan was to drive to Jackson Hole Saturday morning and hang out with some friends for the weekend. It was a lovely Saturday morning to begin with, and we were only forty five minutes outside Rexburg when the car began acting strangely. We were going downhill and loosing speed. As I continually pumped the gas nothing happened. Sad day. So we coasted down the hill, across a bridge, and barely made it to the side of the road. We had gas, we had oil, and we had power, so we had no idea what the problem was. Two times someone stopped to help us. The second man gave us the number of a towing company in the tiny town of Newdale we had just driven through. We both hardly had cell phone service, but we were able to contact our parents, our friends in Jackson, and wake up my dear best friends to get them to come pick us up. 170 dollars later we, and our car, were back in Rexburg. Our awesome friends in Jackson jumped up and offered to come get us before we even made it to Rexburg. In fact, they got there almost the same time we did. So after all that we were on our way to Jackson.


So they took us to a hockey game (Go Moose!) during which the players only fought once. :( But we did get to experience the unique culture that is Jackson Hole. Gotta love those tree-hugging, not-showering, tye-dye, really drunk, spastic natives in Jackson. Great entertainment.


Here's our fight action. Basically everyone got involved and ended up on the ice. Pretty good fight.

Checkin' against the glass. Classic move.

*The Happy Gang*

Daniel, Ashley, Lara, Mike

Can't go to Jackson without seeing the Tetons.

I'm so brave. I crawled through a bear cave, with a bear in it.

More or less.

Our wildlife adventures of the weekend consisted of driving really close to bighorn sheep. The most entertaining part was watching Mike get out of the car and sneak up as close as he possibly could with a camera before he made eye contact with a very impressive looking sheep.

This majestic shot was taken by none other than Daniel. Good work babe.

Classic Antler Arch Shot.

Cute, right?

Bigfoot vacations in Jackson.

So that is the end of our weekend. Two days later we received a bill for $360 to fix the car. Sigh, poor car.

Only two more weeks of school!! And the worst part is already over!! :) Then we get to move! Hoorah!

Valentine's Day, Spencer's birthday

Happy Birthday little brother!! I can't believe that he is seventeen and nearly as tall as me. I never thought either of those things would happen. :) We decided to take him out for lunch wherever he wanted to go. And of all the places in Idaho Falls, he wanted to go to this new El Salvadorian restaurant. It actually turned out to be pretty good. We all got Papusas (quesadilla like things) and had some fried ice cream. Good stuff. Also, notice Daniel's taped figures-that is due to a basketball accident where he jammed both his fingers really badly.

Now on to Valentine's Day- it's kinda crazy to think that one whole year ago we had been engaged for a week, so much has happened in this last year. It's been great. For Valentine's Day I made a delicious breakfast and dinner and we ate picnic style on the living room floor. Saturday when I got home from work Daniel had bought me flowers. balloons, and the most fantastic chocolates ever. Then Sunday morning we opened presents. Daniel got a movie, CD, cologne, and a subscription to ESPN magazine and I got Harry Potter Clue (which sounds super nerdy but I absolutely love it) and some amazing silk slippers.

So that's all for now. Nothing new going on with us. Just working and going to school. We did sign a lease for a new apartment in April that we absolutely love. Two rooms in a quiet little complex. It's nicer than our apartment now with much more space for about the same price. We are by the park and close to Daniel's work so everything about it sounds perfect. We can't wait to move out of our tiny hallway of an apartment. Yay for moving!! :)

Colter and the Wii

A week after we got home, Lara, Brent, Colter, and Ally made it to Mom and Dad's house for another little Christmas. The highlight of all this (besides seeing their beautiful faces) was watching Colter play the Wii. We turned it onto the swordfight game and let him go crazy, which he did.

And Daniel rather enjoyed Colter's new Bumblebee transformers helmet. Well at least long enough for this picture. Colter is quite the Transformers fan.

Please enjoy the following video of Colter showing off his intense Wii-master skills. :)