Air show fun

Last week we went to the air show at Hill Air Force Base. It was Dan's first time going and my second time. Growing up we would just watch the show from home but it was fun to be out on the tarmac to watch. The weather was really great for it this year. Here are a couple of pics I took at the show. More pictures can be found here.

Memorial Day

On Memorial Day Monday we went on our traditional visit to Malad, Idaho. For those of you who don't know, my dad grew up in this little town on a farm that we affectionatly call "the Ranch." We used to go all the time to visit my grandparents but since they have been gone it seems like we only make it up on Memorial Day. This was Dan's second trip to Malad. My family used to have a little joke that spouses could only come to "the Ranch" once they have been the family for a year. My dad would say it was because he wanted to make sure our husbands are really committed. Ha ha ha. Anyway all of the spouses have made it past the one year point and all have made it to "the Ranch." None of them were too shocked about our redneck roots.

Anyway this time it was just my parents and Dan and I. We always start out at the cemetary and visit the Madson graves. Dan has some ancestors buried there too so we visited them as well. When we went to the Castelton section we met some of Dan's mom's cousins who grew up in Malad and were friends with my dad in high school. Turns out they live down the street from us in Farmington. Small world.

Anyway after the cemetary we always go out to lunch with whomever from the family ends up being around. We usually go to a little retaurant in town called the "Dude Ranch." I guess the restaurant was too busy, which it usually is on holidays, and my uncles wanted to have a barbecue. So we ended up going to our "Ranch" and grilling in the shed, - the new one. It was kind of rainy and we didn't want to eat in the house so we ate in the shed. It actually wasn't too bad and it was good to see my uncles and cousin Mandy and her family.

Happy Anniversary

Over Memorial Day weekend we celebrated our second anniversary. I know I am kind of behind on this blog. Anyway to celebrate we went to Thanksgiving Point on that Saturday. I had never really been there before. We were already in Salt Lake for a photo shoot so we went the rest of the way down after. To start we went and saw Star Trek at the theater there. It was awesome! Dan was a little frustrated with the time travel aspect of the movie. He was already frustrated with time travel on Lost this season. I know it makes my mind hurt trying to understand time travel too. Anyway great movie, really fun and lots of adventure.

After the movie we went and saw the gardens. It was a beautiful place. We were kind of too late for the good spring flowers and a little too early for the summer flowers but none the less we really enjoyed walking around the gardens. Then we went and had dinner in the fancy restaurant they have there. It was great and very yummy. We had a great anniversary and hope to have 50 more. Love you honey.

Update

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted. We have been sooo busy. Dan started his summer semester and I have been slammed with photography stuff since wedding season has started. It makes it hard for me to update both blogs. I will try and do better and make time for this one.

Here is a quick update on what has happened in the last month or so since we last posted.

Dan's brother Joey came home from Taiwan. It is fun having him back but we hardly ever see him anyway. I guess Langford in Chinese means dragon. So everyone called him Elder Dragon. Pretty cool. I am kind of confused about the whole Chinese character thing.

Dan sold his car. After many years Dan's car "the white stallion" finally gave up the ghost. It had been on its last leg for a long time. The last time it broke down we decided we didn't want to pay to get it fixed. However Dan ended up fixing it himself so we could get a little bit more money out of it instead of just taking it to a salvage yard. Anyway he fixed it and put an ad on KSL one night. I didn't think anyone would want it since the ad sounded pretty unattractive. However we got tons of calls on it. There must be a market for cars under $500. Anyway Dan ended up selling it by lunchtime the next day. Pretty crazy. I can't believe it sold so soon! What is really funny is it ended up breaking down again as Dan was taking it to the buyer. The guy bought it anyway. Crazy. Anyway we are still thinking about what kind of vehicle to get next and when to get one. Right now we have a loaner car from the family, thanks Jamie and Mom and Dad, and of course my car.

Dan has been playing a lot of disc golf lately. Him and his buddies at work like to go play on their lunch break. They have also started to go before work sometimes. He loves it. Recently some of them got together and bought some baskets they can use at home or for family parties. Dan was pretty excited to get his own basket. This is from right after he got it put together.

We are still plugging along with school and work. Dan is taking one class this summer and still working a lot. We have also been doing a ton of photo shoots and weddings lately. This is the busiest time of year during the peak of wedding season. Dan is so good to come along and be my assistant and second shooter. It is something fun we can do together.

A 'Wicked' good time

We had a great time at Wicked Saturday night. It was fantastic! We had nose bleed seats but it was still great. After listening to the CD for many years it was great to finally see how everything fits together. There were a few things that were still surprises and it was really fun. My favorite part was during Defying Gravity when she started flying with her broom. (I think that is everyone's favorite part though.) I also loved the flying monkeys and the songs were all really fun. I think I have turned Dan into a theatre buff because while we were looking at the program he was pointing out other musicals that were being advertised that he wants to see. Dan is really great. He has gone to a lot of shows with me and always seems to enjoy himeself. Anyway we loved it. I also think it is one of the most family-friendly musicals I have ever seen. Great show!

In other news my little sister graduated from college this week. We are so proud of her. We can't wait to see all the pics of her in her cap and gown. They will be moving from Idaho to Colorado soon so we are excited to see them when they come to visit in between. Also Dan's younger brother comes home from his mission today. He has been in Taiwan. We are all excited to see him tonight. There are a lot of good things going on. Dan got a second job tutoring at the school for a couple hours a week. He loves helping the students. It is great his teachers like him enough to have asked him. That is all the news that have. Until next time.

Two more days

So we are so going to Wicked on Saturday. I am so excited. I have wanted to see this show for like three years. We bought our tickets almost a year ago and the day is almost here. This will be our first Wicked experience aside from listening to the CD more than any other CD I own. I know I am a nerd.

Deep in the heart of Texas

I know it has been forever since I have blogged and since we got back from our vacation. Here is a quick vacation recap anyway. A couple of weeks ago we went to San Antonio to visit my sister, Megan. It was so fun and the weather was awesome. While it was snowing in Utah it was 80 degrees in Texas. It was great to get away and have a real vacation. We did a lot of fun touristy things and Megan and Josh were great tour guides. We also got to play with little Lily. So fun.

On the first night Megan took us to the Alamo. It was a pretty busy day there since we ended up going on the anniversary of the actual battle — 178 years to the day. Pretty cool huh. There were some people dressed up in costumes and some flower arrangements from some of the families. We learned a lot about the Texas revolution on our trip. It was pretty cool. Dan really liked one of the flags from the revolution that said "liberty or death." They had copies you could buy but we didn't end up getting one.

After the Alamo we went down to the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk was so cool. It was like its own little world underneath the street. We went on one of these boat cruises. It was fun to learn about all the buildings. After the boat we met Josh for dinner at one of the awesome restaurants. It was great.

The next day we went to the zoo. It was supposed to be the third largest zoo in the United States. For all of the hype it was a little underwhelming. I love zoos and I guess there were some animals they don't have here so that was fun. The zoo was so crowded though. I guess since it was a Saturday and such nice weather. After the zoo we went to some Japanese tea gardens that were in the same park. That was really cool and we did a little photo shoot there. I will post more of that later on my other blog. The gardens were built in an old rock quarry.


Sunday we just went to church and took a little drive to the temple. I got some awesome pictures even though we couldn't go inside the gates because it was closed. You can check those out on the other blog here. The temple had some way cool stained glass.

Monday we spent the day at Sea World. It was great and not crowded at all. We went on a couple rides and saw a couple shows. When we went to the Shamu show they stopped it halfway through because one of the whales didn't want to cooperate. We were kind of bummed about that but all in all a fun day. We also got to pet some dolphins which was awesome. After Sea World we got some grub from an awesome barbecue place. Can't beat Texas-style brisket. My favorite.




Tuesday we went on a tour of the Spanish missions. They were pretty cool. They were super old and very pretty. Then we went to the top of the Tower of the Americas. It was about 80 stories. They said it is the second tallest free standing tower in the North America, even taller than the Space Needle. I guess the Stratosphere in Las Vegas is the tallest. At the top of the tower they had a little display about the "six flags of Texas." Texas has been part of six different countries in modern times, pretty interesting to learn about. After the tower we went back to the Riverwalk and later went to an IMAX theater and saw a movie about the Alamo. We packed a lot of stuff into our time there.

This is Dan's new friend, Lily. She was so cute. I had forgotten how much energy puppies have. She definitely keeps Megan and Josh on their toes. She was a lot of fun.

It was a great trip. It was great to spend so much time with Josh and Megan since we don't see them very much. Thanks for being such great hosts guys. Love you.

View more images here.