13 YEARS!

Totally feelin the love this weekend. We celebrated our 13th anniversary Saturday. This is a pic from our engagement:



Steve asked me to marry him at his family Christmas Eve party. Everyone got one gift to open and mine was a gift inside a gift inside a gift etc. until I got a little white box with a ring inside it.

When I look at this picture of us I just remember how I felt in that moment. I was absolutely on cloud nine and so happy that Steve and I were going to be together forever.

And, yes, those were my favorite pants - my DENIM OVERALLS. And it was Christmas Eve so what else would I wear with them but my CHRISTMAS WREATH TURTLENECK? hahahaha And one of my other favorites in this picture is the butt cut. Steve sported it throughout the 6 months we dated and our 6 month engagement.

Here's how we celebrated 13 Loooooooong happy years... :)

Little Cottonwood Trail





AH OH - T A C O!! (notice Steve's front wheel...)



And here is how the rest of the ride went for Steve.



After the TACO wreck, the rest of our biking plans for the day were nixed and Barbs was still taking Wyatt til the next morning... so we went to dinner at Market Street and got a lovely table outside by the river (very picturesque!). Steve had crab legs, steak & prime rib! (I ordered for his benefit since I'm neither a seafood or steak girl.) Then we went to a movie and after to Red Robin for Mud Pie. The Mud Pie totally reminds us of "the early years" b/c we used to get them ALL THE TIME when we were first married - but it had been a looooooong time.

So I've been thinking and its crazy how awesome this anniversary was for me. Is it just a case of low expectations? (My mantra lately has been - "High expectations are such troublemakers.") I don't know but the simple things like sharing one of our favorite hobbies together (mountain biking), getting an awesome meal together and reminiscing about all the good things that we've been through over 13 years together and especially having Steve to myself (alone) for over 24 hours that totally hit the spot for me this year. I love Steve. Life has been quite the ride for us so far.

Speaking of the early years...



And (hopefully) this will be us in the later years... :) don't ya just love these two? :)

Sydney 2000 Memories...

(I doubt my work memories will interest anyone but me... but I just wanted to document these experiences a little bit and its fun for me to reminisce).
The company I used to work for brought performance groups (dancers) over to Sydney, Australia to perform at Olympic Venues for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. I was lucky enough to travel to Sydney twice - once for a pre-trip to go check it out and plan the trip for our groups and once during the Olympics. These pics are all from our pre-trip. I wish I could find photos from our trip during the Olympics. If I do, I'll post them here. But for now...
This is a pic of the Botanical Gardens in Sydney. We went running every morning (at like 4 AM b/c our time clocks were so screwy) through the botanical gardens and along the coastline. This is one of my most vivid memories of Sydney. It was spectacular.

We stayed in the city for the pre-trip, but when we brought our performance groups we actually stayed north of Sydney on an island. We took a small boat to/from the island everyday. It was beautiful and remote.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbor Bridge. I actually climbed this bridge with a group of our performers during the Olympics trip. It was super fun.

The stage our groups performed on in Olympic park. (Among others, they also performed in town squares, an amusement park, etc.)

Sydney Harbor fountains. The Sydney Harbor is soooo spectacular, especially at night. Sydney is my favorite city that I've ever been.

Some Australian associates that I became friends with who helped us plan our trip. Whoa... I'm remembering some crazy stories right now about these guys. They were gay and they REALLY partied and told us some stories that made our sheltered Utah heads spin. But, good people that we enjoyed working with.

Auckland, New Zealand. We took just one day off work on the way to Australia and spent a day in New Zealand. All we had time for was a tour of Auckland. I would LOVE to go back there someday and explore the southern end, it is a beautiful place.

It's easy to see why SueAnn and I became such great friends. We had so many awesome experiences together. She is now the mother to 6 kids age 5 and under. Twin girls, triplet boys and a single boy. We don't see each other like we used to (her life is a crazy whirlwind), but she is still one of my favorite people and dearest friends. She doesn't blog, so she'll probably never see this post, but I love ya, SueAnn.

Festival of Gold Memories...

In another lifetime I used to be involved with some pretty awesome events. One of my favorites was called Festival of Gold - A choral festival for top choirs around the country to come and compete and perform in a spectacular concert at famous concert halls and cathedrals. (I'm pretty sure these pictures were taken at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC) I LOVED these concerts! My associate used to always say "A person is never more beautiful than when they sing." And he would create these masterpiece concerts that would take my breath away.
And these old guys in the pics were my dear friends. We used to party like rock stars with these dudes! They were renowned in their field of choral music and now, sadly, they have all passed on except one. I'm actually surprised that I don't have a pic of Dr. Jerold Ottley (the former MoTab director). After he retired from MoTab he adjudicated and directed for us sometimes. He and his wife, JoAnne, are so dear.
Anyway, I loved those days...