Monday, March 31, 2014

Joe Bonamassa x3

We went to see Joe Bonamassa
for the third time in two years.
He's one of Eric's favorites
and I think he's pretty awesome too.

We saw him in Salt Lake City 
and then in Tulsa for our anniversary.
Each show was a little bit different.
This time, he brought some musicians 
with him from other countries.
Amazing talent!


Eric in front of the tour truck

All the acoustic guitars - I think he played 9 total



Our seats were on the 2nd row!!

Since our seats were on the 2nd row, I brought my earplugs.  

We were not disappointed.  In fact,
we will probably see Joe again before 
the year is up.  He will be in Tulsa and 
Dallas in November, and he is playing
at Red Rocks in Denver this summer, 
so we want to try to go to one of those.
  We will probably go see him every 
time we have an opportunity. 

Yes folks,
he is THAT good.  








Winter 2014

I'm so behind on my blog!
I will attempt to catch you up
on our life so far this year...

TUBING AT SNOWBASIN

We had a lot of fun tubing
at Snowbasin with friends. 
The hill isn't steep or very long,
but we really enjoyed ourselves. 
After some tubing, we rode the
lift to the top of John Paul for lunch!

Tubing with our friends Tiffany and Daniel

Top of the Men's Downhill at Snowbasin

Top of the Men's Downhill at Snowbasin with Tiffany

VISIT FROM THE UNDERWOODS
At Snowbasin

We enjoyed a visit from the Underwoods!
The guys got to ski and Ronda
and I made chocolate covered pretzels
and did a little shopping.  Ronda and I
met the guys on the slopes for lunch (pictured above).


TREVOR & ANDY VISIT

My brother Trevor and our good
friend Andy came out to visit us.
We took them to Park City to see
the Olympic Park Museum and then
we found an epic tubing hill in
Soldier Hollow.  We got snowed/rained
on the whole time we were tubing, 
but we still had an absolute blast!

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

The guys skied for three days
straight.  I went with them one day.
I think Eric and Trevor almost killed
Andy (he hasn't had as much ski
experience as they have) on the first
day.  But I think they had a great time
overall.  We got so much snow while they
were here - so they got to experience
Utah powder skiing!  

Me and Trevor

Andy, Eric & Trevor

Andy, Me & Trevor

Me and Eric

Me & Trevor

Eric & Trevor (Our house is in the background - that dot down there)


ERIC'S NEW TOY

Eric has wanted this guitar for a 
VERY long time.  It's a Gibson Les Paul
Goldtop.  It's basically his dream electric 
guitar.  So he's in heaven.  And it sounds 
amazing!  I'm very happy for him.

Playing his new guitar for worship on Sunday morning


OKLAHOMA VISIT
With my sweet little fur-nephew, Gizmo

This is a fun story.  I went on
a visit to Oklahoma for a week.
My parents were supposed to come
visit us, but things have been a little
too crazy at the office for my dad to
get away, so I went to them.  Trevor
and Candace came into town for a 
friend's 30th birthday party, so I got
to babysit Natalie and Gizmo one night. 

With sweet baby Natalie!

So, I babysat Natalie and then
went to sleep.  My dad woke me up
at 12:30am and told me I needed to
come downstairs, which I thought
was very odd.  I got downstairs
and standing in the kitchen was Eric!
He came into town for the weekend
to surprise me!  I was very surprised.
We had a lot of fun.  Trevor brought
all of his sound equipment and we had
a super fun jam session one night.

Candace, Trevor, Natalie & Baby Boy Hayhurst on the way!

We enjoyed a brunch at the river
before Trevor, Candace and Natalie
had to go home.  Baby boy Hayhurst
is on schedule to arrive at the end of July! 

Lunch at the River with the Family


LIFE IN OGDEN
A Date Night with Friends

We are staying pretty busy with
worship team and the youth group.
We enjoy being involved with our
church.  We have met lots of great
people!  We've been enjoying time 
with friends - playing mini golf, 
bowling, going out to dinner, shopping,
having game nights and cookouts.  

We recently started a fun home
improvement project that I've been
wanting to do for a LONG time.
We framed our bathroom mirrors.
So far, we have done the master
bathroom and the powder bathroom,
but we plan on doing the guest bathrooms
at some point in the next couple of weeks.
We stained the wood to match the 
cabinets and I couldn't be happier
with the way it turned out.

Master Bathroom

Powder Bathroom

In other news, I was asked to join
the Officers' Spouses' Club Board
again - this time as the Blog/Website
organizer.  If you ever want to check
that out and see what we're up to,
you can go to:
 http://hillosc.wordpress.com


MIMI & PA


Mimi and Pa's headstone was
finally set last week. 
It's beautiful.   


I will be better about
keeping the blog up to date
in the future.



Sunday, March 30, 2014

Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas.
If you read my post about
Natalie's Birthday (Click here to read it),
you already know that we almost
didn't make it to the midwest.  

The airport

Utah got this crazy
snow storm the day we were supposed to
leave.  Our flight to Tulsa kept getting 
delayed and then finally canceled.
There were no other flights available 
over the weekend, but my
brother came to the rescue.

Waiting for a flight.... Trying to stay positive!

Since we were going to Dallas for
a few days for Natalie's Birthday,
Trevor got us a flight to Dallas
and my parents met us there.  Then
we rode back to Tulsa with them
after the party for Christmas!


Finally on the plane... getting de-iced

But then our luggage didn't make it!
So the airline gave us sweet little
travel kits which included these awesome
sleep shirts, along with toothpaste and a
toothbrush.  It was close to 3AM by the
time we got to Trevor and Candace's house.


In our airline provided sleep shirts

The next morning, Trevor got us
donuts, so that made up for our
missing bags - I think so at least.




And then we got to see these sweet
little faces - and that really made
the trip worth it!


My niece and fur-nephew!

Natalie loves her Uncle Eric!

Lunch and pictures with Santa!

Anyway, the rest of the pictures in this blog
are from our Christmas celebration
in Oklahoma.  

This was our first
Christmas without Mimi and Pa.
We missed them so much.
Christmas was always at their house. 
So, being the traditionalists that we are,
we tried to do everything the same.
We made all of the usual foods
(enough to feed an army) 
and we put Mimi and Pa's Christmas
tree up instead of my Mom and Dad's tree.

My mom made us all special keepsake
ornaments out of ornaments from
Mimi and Pa's Christmas tree
and their memorial folders.


I'm thankful for the many wonderful
memories I have of Mimi and Pa.
And I'm thankful for the
 traditions that will keep them
close to our hearts and a
 part of our lives for years to come.

I learned how to make Chocolate Pie and Coconut Cream Pie!

Making Christmas Cookies!

On Christmas Eve, we went to
look at Christmas lights.  We started at
Rhema and then drove around to houses
that the newspaper listed as view worthy.  




Christmas Day...

Santa came!

Christmas Day with Taps and Tango

We wore aprons made by Granny


It wouldn't be a holiday without Kraft Macaroni and Cheese

My mom did such a great job with the table decor.
And we used Mimi's gorgeous china.


We had our traditional Christmas cookies and several delicious pies.


Passing out the Christmas gifts

Eric's new golf shoes!

My awesome Bose bluetooth speaker!

Eric's GoPro Camera (for awesome skiing footage) 

Some of my mom's Christmas wrapping paper had glitter on it - so
she was vacuuming me off... what a mess.  But the paper was beautiful.

Eric and I had a Christmas dinner before we left for the midwest.
We used our new Christmas china that Grandma Peg gave us.

Then, in the first part of January,
we celebrated Oliver's 2nd Gotcha Day!
We have had him for two years!