Everybody's Gone Surfin'...

Another one of my "Groupon" purchases was a gift for Danny for Valentine's day. There was a really good deal for the Flowrider, iFly, and the iRock. It was only $39 to do all three things. I bought one for both me and Danny. On Saturday Danny really wanted to do the Flowrider. He invited his nephews to join him.  I opted out of the Flowrider this time, I just couldn't get myself into a swimsuit quite yet, it's too early in the season. But here are some pictures from Saturday....we will post videos later.

Danny, Ashton, and Ethan waiting to start.

Ethan and Ashton don't look too excited!

The spectators! Lisa, Averie, and me.

Ashton wanted to take some pictures...so me and Averie posing for the picture.

And another picture....

At the first, they used the rope to help balance, but only for a couple of times.

Bring on Hawaii

One of my favorite quotes of the day was Averie saying 

"It's soaking hot in here"! Good description...it was warm and very humid.

The Schooner

I really like Groupons and all the other discount daily coupons that companies and places offer. One of the recent coupons that I bought was one for The Prairie Schooner in Ogden. For those of you who haven't been there it is a steak restaurant that has a really fun atmosphere. The tables are made to feel like you are eating in a covered wagon out on the prairie. I hadn't been to The Prairie Schooner for a long time and one of my good friends now owns the place, so when this deal came up, it was hard to pass on. I think it was I bought a $30 gift certificate, but I only pay $15 for it. Anyway, Friday night we decided to use the gift certificate. My dad was lucky and got to come with us because my mom was out of town.

My dad, me and Danny crossing the plains.
If this is how the pioneers ate, they were lucky!

It was really good food, we each had a different cut of steak just to try them out. We also had a yummy appetizer of fried mushrooms, hot wings and onion rings. None of us went home hungry!!

Sushi Anyone?

When I was growing up my mom always made us "tuna" sandwiches. We would happily eat our sandwiches with no problems; in fact we really liked them. Then one time, my mom asked if we wanted "tuna fish" sandwiches and from that time on something had changed, she used the word FISH. From then on we didn't like them...AT ALL. I wanted nothing to do with anything fish. I wouldn't try it and if I was forced to try it I wouldn't like it because it was "fish". I hated that fishy taste and smell. I was perfectly happy not eating fish.

Then when I was all grown up...I started trying fish more and more. I thought people were cool if you ate fish. I would take a bite of others people’s fish, just to make sure I didn't like it. But the crazy thing is I kind of liked it (still as long as it doesn't have the fishy flavor). The one that really hooked me is the Halibut from Maddox. Yummy! No fishy flavor at all. And the lemon and tartar sauce that you dip it in, delicious!! Another hook that opened the door was our little home town has a salmon bake. Then Joe's Crab Shack in California...butter with crab as a way to get it to your mouth, I am sold. Anyway, I started really acquiring a taste for things from the sea.

But never in a million years did I think I ever think I would try the uncooked fish...sushi.

The first time I tried sushi I was a couple of years ago when I was in Washington D.C. I was with my friend Susie, and we met up with one of her friends that lived there. The friend suggested this sushi place and since I was just the tag-a-long, I went just to hang out...not to eat any. But then they ordered a tempera veggie roll...no fish in it. So me being the good sport I am tried one. I dipped in the wasabi sauce, used my chop sticks and shoved it in. I didn't like it at all. I had a mouth full of sticky rice I couldn't swallow and seaweed taste in my mouth. I couldn't imagine people really liking it. Everyone I talked to told me it was an "acquired" taste and to keep trying it...um, no thanks. 



First time eating sushi

Then I started dating Danny. He would tell me that sushi was his favorite food and he LOVED it and craved it sometimes. This had me a little worried....luckily it wasn't until later on in our dating that he actually took me to sushi. We ended up going with his parents. I ordered a meal that only had a couple of mini sushi rolls, but something else as the main meal. I ate the sushi and liked it a little better than my first time because they were smaller rolls and the rice didn't get stuck in my mouth and I couldn't taste the seaweed.  

 Since then we have been to sushi a couple more times, every time with his family. Here are some pictures of some of the sushi I have tried.

This first one is called the "Green Globe" it is an avocado filled with some kind of raw fish and topped with fish eggs. It was really good...however I mostly just ate the avocado part and scrapped off the eggs.

This is the "Green Globe" (Thanks Lisa, I stole this pic from you)

This next one has been my favorite so far. Danny got it at Tepanyaki's in Layton. It has, I think tuna, avocados and a spicy kick. Think the avocado and spiciness is what won me over with this one.

The "Red Dragon"

My favorite sushi roll so far.



I feel brave for even trying. I have come a long way. I still am not convinced that I can have sushi as my whole meal...but I am willing to try some now and then.

Hall of Fame

Us at the BNL concert last summer.

Danny and I have started a picture collection of us with famous people. We started it last summer when we went to a Barenaked Ladies concert at Red Butte Gardens. The concert was really fun. We were able to sneak down and get a really good spot up close to the stage.

Enjoying the concert.

This is our view of the stage. It was a perfect spot,
except for the loud speakers right in front of us.

Me and the set list.

Anyway, after the show we kind of just hung out for a bit. The stage crew was breaking things down and Danny asked one of them for the set list and handed it to us. Then we decided to find where the bands bus was and hang out there to see if we could get pictures with them and their autographs. We found the spot, but no one else was there. Just me and Danny and the security guard that was there. So we hung out for a bit, and then they came in a van. Danny asked them for their autographs and we got to take pictures with them. We got all of them except for Jim Creeggan, who never got out of the van.

 Here are the photos of proof.

Danny and Ed are catching up on life.

Both of us and Ed. He was real impressed
that I could take the picture myself.

After seeing this picture, Kevin said "Don't I look cherry!"

Ty, the drummer. At one of the previous concerts I went to, I caught a drumstick
he threw out  into the crowd. I told him about it here and he just said "Oh". Awkward!!

**As a side note: Danny and I always try and find a time or place where we could have met before. We found that there was a chance that we could have seen each other at a Barenaked Ladies concert a long time ago (the same one where I caught the drumstick) where we both were waiting for the band out back. He remembers someone I was with and a few details about it. Crazy. Too bad I was scared of boys and probably didn't dare talk to him then!!**

Then on our honeymoon we went to Vegas and saw the Blue Man Group. It was an awesome show to watch. We really enjoyed it and I would go see them again. They hang out after the show to take pictures with people.

Us and the Blue Man

A few months ago we found out that the Crash Test Dummies were going to be playing up in Park City. We decided that would be a fun little trip up to see them. The concert was okay. We were probably the only "young" ones there which really surprised me. But after they were signing autographs and taking pictures, we couldn't pass on that.

Crash Test Dummies

And finally some of you might not know this, but Danny is pretty famous himself and my favorite famous person. So I couldn't not put his picture on this post of famous people!!

Danny at one of his shows!

Anyway, there are some of our pictures with famous people. We are hoping to add more. We are going to the U2 concert in May, maybe we can get a picture with Bono, The Edge, Adam, and Larry.

I will keep you posted!!

Oh and by the way we also have a really funny picture of us and Brian Mullahy. One of my favorites.

Change of Heart

There was a time in my life when I disliked getting flowers and Valentine's Day (often referred to as Single Awareness Day, because if you are single you are aware of it...especially on Feb. 14th.) And the combination of the two was even worse, in my opinion. Funny how now those days are now gone and passed. I think I just never had the right person giving flowers to me and no one to special share Valentine's with.

And now I am so super lucky to have someone to love and spoil me on this holiday.

Thanks honey!!



These are my pretty red roses from this year.



The girls in my class all awed at the same time when
these were brought in! It was pretty funny.

These are from last year.



Dew it!

Last weekend we drove up to Snowbasin to check out the Dew Tour. We got there later in the afternoon, so all of the tents and vendors had already closed down. So we just decided to watched the women's snowboarders competition! The pictures here don't do it justice, this thing is really steep!

You can see the boarder doing one of her jumps if you

look by the black and yellow flag. She is the blue blob. 

They really do get  a lot of air!

We would have gone up higher,
but we didn't wear the proper shoes.

It was crazy how steep it is.

There were a lot of people there to watch!

A snowboarder in the middle of the pipe!

Me.

It was way fun to watch, they do some way cool tricks off of it. But next time I will wear my boots and not my old Dr. Martins with no traction. Although, it was kind of fun entertaining others while we slipped and slid down the hill.

All that Jazz

For part of his Christmas, Santa gave Danny tickets to the Jazz vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game. (Lucky for me most of Santa's gifts to him also benefited me too.) We had planned on going to go to dinner before, but for lunch we had the 50 chicken piece McNugget meal, so we were still full from that. (And no, we didn't eat all 50 nuggets, in fact there are still probably 38 nuggets in our fridge if anyone is hungry!!)

We had pretty good seats...right on the 50 yard line!

The game was okay, the Jazz lost (which is not uncommon these days), but the guy in front of us cheering for the Thunder was happy. We did come to the conclusion that the Jazz either win or lose no matter if Danny watches them or not.

Sporting our Jazz shirts...Danny's was a new purchase.

Now, this maybe a surprise to some of you, but the key to the game (according to Ron Boone) is that the Jazz need to score more points than the other team in order to win. We text this to the pre-game show the night before and it was shown on the bottom ticker and they won then. We tried to yell it at the game to Daren, but I guess he couldn't hear it.

Raja Bell....tickling the twine!

Even with the loss, we had a fun time. There is nothing like watching the game live!!