totally addicted

we arrived home last night from a wonderful vacation with my family in california. it was a week full of fun, food, crazy children and noise at ridiculously loud levels. it was also a technology-free week (well almost, we did watch a few movies). however there was no cell reception and no internet (it was actually nice). that also meant no blogging. but rather than catch up on my own blog, i have spent the last 2 hours (yes, 2 hours isn't an exaggeration) since dave left for a meeting catching up on my friends' blogs. i am totally addicted not only to blogging, but to looking at other peoples' blogs (i think dave occassionally worries about my obsession). what can i say, i *love* knowing what is going on with my friends and blogs have made it infinitely easier to keep up. and after not checking blogs for over a week, almost everyone has updated theirs since the last time i checked! wonderful! yes, my name is stephanie and i am addicted to blogs.

dinner and a show

dave and i decided to go on a date tonight (i love dates on thursday night). i decided i wanted to surprise him, so i blindfolded him, drove around a little to throw him off and we ended up at benihana's. he is amazing and still figured out where we were going, even when i drove in a few circles. we had a lot of fun and ate some amazing food! i learned that i should have gotten the fried rice and next time i will splurge and get some shrimp or seafood with my meal. our chef israel was great and i wish i had taken a video of some of the stuff he did (especially with the egg). we decided it would be awesome to have a big griddle like that in our house and dave wants to learn to cook that way, which i am all for! dave wanted me to preface the picture of us by explaining that he had steak in his mouth and that is why he is smiling that way. i still think he looks pretty cute!

flashback

a couple of weeks ago dave and i went to wedding reception that was held at a beautiful golf course in the foothills. it was absolutely breathtaking! eli was nice enough to take a couple of pictures of us.
after the reception we chaperoned a multi-stake youth dance at the cannery. we even got asked which stake we were from when we got there…until we explained that we were there to chaperone (and the person at the table asked to see my left ring finger!). we manned the sno-cone table (cherry or grape?) and by the end we were pros and could even do half and half (half cherry, half grape) without a second thought! it was fun to be with the youth and we even managed to squeeze in a couple of dances (the rest of the time i danced at the sno-cone table and dave pretended he didn’t know me:)

i'm proud to be an american

i love the fourth of july. it is one of my favorite holidays and i am so grateful to live in this wonderful country where we enjoy so many freedoms. i know these freedoms don't come without sacrifice and i am grateful for the many people who have and still do give so much to make freedom possible. dave and i visited the monument of a fallen navy seal who died a couple of years ago. he graduated the same year i did from dave's high school (the year before dave). it was humbling to be there and be reminded of his sacrifice.

i thought this quote from the navy seal creed on his monument was really powerful and descriptive of america's attitude and feelings

we also spent some time with our families. we had breakfast with dave's parents and later went to my parent's annual ward bbq. myles loved the water slide and i had to take a picture of one of the twins (i am embarassed to say that i don't know if it is carter or cade...oops)

that night we went to see colorado's pro soccer team, the colorado rapids, with mindy, cole, lincoln and payton. we had a great time and the rapids beat the new york red bulls 4-0. the kids did great even though it was way past their bed time, although they didn't quite make it through the fireworks show. a band played after the game and the fireworks were AMAZING and went of forever. it's the largest show in the state and we loved it.

happy independence day!

totally 80's!!

dave and i went to an 80's party that my co-worker threw on thursday. i don't know how i feel about the fact that i could purchase my 80's outfit at mainstream stores in 2008! the 80's have definitely made a comback (for better or worse).

we got ready at my parent's house and the mullet was a big hit with all the kids...can you blame them?!




we look hot! especially dave and his mullet. please note the ghostbusters t-shirt and thundercats belt buckle. plus the killer jean jacket from savers.



please note my crimped hair. my mom found the crimping iron in the bathroom. it is the same one my sisters and i used growing up. still works! lexi loved it so much she crimped her hair for the 4th!

me and my co-workers. president regan even made a cameo at the party

boys will be boys

since lexi got her own time with us, the boys needed a chance too. so dave took them one afternoon this week for a boys star wars movie day. they watched 2 star wars movies, ate plenty of treats and played with star wars legos. i got home from work and dave was exhausted...those little boys are wild and so cute!

two little monkeys

a whole lotta shakin' going on

there was some major hip action happening at the todd household. we were at my parent's house and i learned something new about my mom...she rocks at hula hooping.

watch that grandma shake her hips!!

and she wasn't the only one getting in on the action...

i know this video isn't turned the right way, but i can't figure out how to turn it. oh well, myles is hilarious. he moves his hands more than his hips!

"sick" day

last sunday night i came down with a bug and didn't go to work on monday. ok, so technically it was an "i don't want to go to work and i want to stay home and play with my husband" bug, but that's just a technicality. so we slept in little (without wasting too much of the day), i went for a run and then we headed to elitch's. we started out at the waterpark, but decided after waiting in lines for too long, having too little selection and not the most exciting rides that we would head to the amusement park. we rode every rollercoaster (minderaser twice because it's my favorite) and had a great time!

that night we headed to a bbq for a little get together with some of my friends from high school at the archer's since andy was home for a few weeks from iraq and doug and dana were in town from tucson. of course i left my camera in my purse and didn't remember it until we were leaving, resulting in a picture-less post. it was great to see everyone and i feel so grateful for the wonderful friends i have been blessed with.

i have decided that every week should be a 3 1/2 day work week. it is totally doable!

oh canada!

happy canada day! here's what "the toronto star" says about today: "It's been 141 years since this improbable country was created from a collection of disparate British colonies, with little linking them other than the fact they were not the United States."

i grew to love this country while i lived and served there for 18 months. if i could, i would have celebrated today with lots of canadian treats: crispy crunch, wunderbars, tim bits and nanimo bars...and that's just the beginning. instead i attempted to sing "oh canada" to dave and was quite disappointed that i had forgotten so many words. but despite that fact, i love canada and was so happy to reminisce a little today.

lexi's night!

angela and her kids are in town for about 2 weeks and it has been so much fun having them here. i am itching for them to move to colorado permanently! i am a typical aunt…i think my nieces and nephews are the cutest and dave and i have had so much fun hanging out with them. friday night was lexi’s special night with uncle dave and aunt bee.
i picked lex up after work and here is how the evening went:

we dropped by and picked up dave, some dinner at quiznos and headed to a park for a picnic

dinner was followed by a competitive game of putt-putt golf. we were tied up for most of the game, but lexi managed to pull out the win in the end, barely beating dave and i :)

then we headed home for movie night complete with plenty of junk food (dave eventually had to confiscate the candy after he saw a pile of wrappers next to lexi and her cheeks stuffed full of starbursts like a squirrel…a girl after my own heart…i can never get enough candy). we watched “high school musical 2” and lex knew the words to all the songs and even some of the dances. she is the cutest!! we had so much fun with her!!

we love you lexi!