Braves Game and Golf Carts

Friday evening: Brant, along with a couple of my good high school friends Lacy and Amara, headed to the Braves game. I will never get tired of going to Braves games. And the rain even waited until the top of the 9th inning before making an appearance and causing a rain delay. One of the highlights was seeing a man who was there celebrating his 102nd birthday on the jumbo screen. He even did a little dance. Impressive.

Saturday afternoon: another good friend from high school Joyce (and her cute family) hosted a bbq. If your not familiar with Peachtree City, Georgia- then you will love this (and maybe think its a little odd) but- since golfing is big in PTC, all through the city there are also golf cart paths. It's a totally normal thing to drive your golf cart to the grocery store, school, church, work, etc. Some folks have even built mini garages onto their homes specifically for their golf carts. And since Joyce lives in PTC and has a gold cart, she let us give it a spin!

Notice the aviator glasses above here...














Warning: golf cart crossing!














Notice even the cute little stop signs they have at the intersections of the road and a cart path.

Yep, Brant definately liked the golf cart (and me too!)

Another year bites the dust...

Hanging out cave style between brother Adam and sister Shannon (around 1987 or '88)

After a birthday breakfast, we'll be spending the day making a first offer on our favorite home find and then heading to Turner Field this evening for the Braves vs. Marlins game.

Looking forward to a great day!

Lovin it

Earlier this week we made a quick stop to CVS Pharmacy to pick up noise protectant ear plugs (Brant has been demolishing a bathroom at my mom's house and it gets pretty loud with the sledge hammer).

He didn't realize it at the moment, but as he pulled into an empty parking spot, I perked up and pointed to the sign above the spot that read "Expectant Moms". Above isn't the exact sign, but since we didn't have a camera on us, this one will do.

After he realized what the sign said, he was hesitant to stay parked there- especially since I'm past 17 weeks with no baby bump in sight. But I thought it was perfect- especially since the sign didn't specify how pregnant or how big your baby bump has to be!

Too bad more places don't have parking spots like these...

Our New Fav

If you like The Apprentice (which I loved and even sent in an application video to be on a few years back) then you'll love Shark Tank.

This has become our new favorite entertainment for Sunday evenings. We love to see the ideas that entrepreneurs have come up with and are looking to get off the ground with from the investments from these five 'sharks' (a.k.a self made millionaires)

"Shark Tank depicts negotiations between entrepreneurs and investor 'Sharks.' The Sharks are investing their own money at their discretion. No offer is being made to or solicited from the viewing audience. " -abc

The downside- the show is only an hour long and only comes on once a week!

Alfabetfotos

I've always told Brant that I was putting off decorating until we bought a home. Mostly because, well- I'm just not an interior decorater and plain white walls with plain white blinds on the windows never bothered me.

The closer we get to buying a home (we've narrowed it down to 15 from 43!) the more I'm making myself think about decorating. And when I came across Alfabetfotos.com, I thought it was a darling idea - Alphabet or Letter Photography Inspirational phrases and sayings that are made out of photographs of everyday objects and things that are in the shape of the letters.

Such a cute idea which is on my list of future decor now. Now, just have to decide what I want it to say...

Welcome to Atlanta!

After leaving Utah Friday afternoon (July 31), an overnight in Farmington New Mexico, and a 2 day stop in Texas to visit/rest at Brant's folks place (driving a moving truck at 55mph solo across the country can be exhausting for anyone!) we arrived in Georgia- a huge Huge HUGE thanks to Brant's brother Justin (the Utah to Texas leg) and then my sister Shannon (the Texas to Georgia leg) who helped drive our second car out.

As expected, Brant bonded immediately with the moving truck when he picked it up in Utah and was disappointed the day we went to return it in Georgia. I snapped this photo as a momentum for him during the last time he pulled in a gas station to tanker up.
















(Photos will be blurry for a while since the focus on my lens broke and I'm in the market for a new lens)

After unpacking the truck and setting up camp, first on the list was a quick visit with Brant's friend Philip (we missed you Megan!) who was in town from Washington D.C. for work. We wanted him to have a very authentic Atlanta experience, so we took him to eat at the Varsity in Atlanta located across the street from Georgia Tech.















Next order of business: a Braves game and find a house! we're in temporary place until then.

P.S. While in Texas we stopped by the Grapevine Mills Mall where I had my eyebrows threaded for the first time. It was fast, clean, and way better than waxing or tweezing- I'd recommend it if you get the chance.

Last Weekend in Utah

Friday - was my last day of work. And since it was also Pioneer Day (yep- our office is open on Pioneer Day) we had a potluck lunch. What a great send off!

Fri evening - Dene and Mike headed over for one last salmon BBQ (Christy- we ate ALL of the salmon you sent home with us! Well, minus the last 3 frozen pieces that we gave to Dene and Mike to take home- we thought they were the most appropriate to give them to since they're from Alaska and all!)

Sat afternoon - we headed to Seven Peaks with Rissa and John to use up the passes that were burning a hole in our pockets since I bid for them online a few months ago. I thought that I had outgrown water parks a few years ago, but I was wrong! It was especially fun to watch how dramatic Brant and John were about riding certain slides and then the victory they felt afterwards on going down the steep slides (Brant talked about it all evening!). Afterwards Rissa and John treated us to 5 Buck Pizza in Provo - a great way to end the day!

Sunday - our last sunday in this ward. We couldn't have left on a better note - Elder Roberts returned home last week and gave his homecomming talk. This was the Elder that we ran into over Easter dinner in Georgia at my mom's house and who spent his last area in the Fayetteville ward- the same ward that we will be moving to in Georgia (at least temporarily). One of my young women's leader from GA and her daughter were also sitting in the congregation yesterday listening to his homecomming talk and it was so fun to run into them!

Later that afternoon we headed to the Roberts home for dinner to celebrate the homecomming of Jacob and the farewell of his brother Justin who will be leaving on a mission to Italy next week. It was terrific!

What a great way to spend our last weekend! (If we were moving in the middle of winter, I probably wouldn't have any hesitation to pick up and move, but this past weekend isn't going to make it any easier for us to move this Friday).

A secret talent

One of the talents that I discovered early on about Brant when we were dating is that he is an excellent mover. He helped me pack up and move twice when we were dating, and twice again since we have been married. While I'm wanting to "take a break" every 20 minutes from packing, he'll keep working full throttle until everything is in boxes and moved.

He's been planning our move to GA for the past couple weeks, and last week I even came home to find this piece of paper pictured above.

Can you tell what it is?

It's a blueprint of what the inside of the moving truck will look like once we get everything packed in it. He went through and measured all of our furniture and bigger items, and then strategically placed them in this blueprint to maximize all the possible space we will have with the truck (since this is a voluntary work move, we have to eat the costs and move ourselves, so we're definately maximizing all possible space so we don't have to rent more truck than we need).

He also keeps talking about how fun it will be to be a truck driver and drive with the windows down across the country with the wind blowing in his hair.

So if you happen to be out on the country roads a week and a half from now and see a 16 foot moving truck with the company name "BUDGET" in big letters splashed across it and a guy with a goofy grin with his window down driving it, don't be surprised when you realize it's Brant.

What a stud.

Good Times

Canada-Photos/ Google Images

A week ago, we had a ward party at the Scera pool in Orem. I'm not sure who had the sweet connections, but they rented out the entire swimming facility (including the lap pool/ diving tank, serpentine slides, leaisure pool, water playground, and more) just for our ward.

It was soo much fun.

And then this past Saturday we got together with Rissa and John and headed up the canyon to float the provo river in tubes.

The water was absolutely freezing! Not to mention trying to stay clear of the side brush.

And we had the absolute best time :)

If you live in the Provo area, I'd highly recommend floating the river.

We're Leavin... On a Jet Plane

Actually, its more like in a 16 foot moving truck.

Yes, my friends. The Utah chapter of our lives will soon come to a close. After 9 months of waiting, Brant's request to transfer to Atlanta has been approved!

This development happened pretty fast -meaning that they notified us on June 26 and gave us 4 days to decide (telling us that if we did take it, Brant would be based out of Atlanta beginning Aug 1). It will be a fast move, but we took it.

While we look forward to this move, we will miss our time spent in Utah. I'll miss all the activities and events going on, the dear friends we've made here, and the memories we built. I think there might even be a tear shed when Brant has to say good bye to his garden here that he's spent so much time on.

Besides a couple of months right after my mission and the short visits back there, I haven't lived in Georgia for almost 10 years. Things I definately look forward to in Georgia are catching the last half of the Brave's season, being reunited with good high school friends, having warm winters, and....

Adding to our family :)

Not only are we relocating from Utah to Georgia, we'll be expecting our first visit from the baby stork around the 3rd week of January (that's how babies work, right?).

Actually, at the '11 weeks and 5 days' doctor's appointment earlier today, we had the "listening to the baby's heartbeat for the first time" experience. I was excited to hear the heartbeat right away!

Until I realized that it was my own heartbeat.

hahah!

But- we did eventually hear the baby's heartbeat :)

So we're getting ready for some big changes around here and excited about digging our roots deeper out in Georgia. I'm sure that we'll be back in Utah visiting every once in awhile, but until then, and to my Utah friends- I'll miss you and definately want to get together with you before we jet out... in a moving truck :)

P.S. Name that tune!

Happy 123456789!

It will happen today at 12:34 and 56 seconds (on 7/8/9).

What a nice evening

This evening after dinner, Brant and I rode our bikes down the street to watch the Orem Owlz play at UVU.

I love summer nights.

P.S. It was a great sunset tonight, but don't be fooled by the picture. The pocket sized point and shoot camera we took with us wouldn't work at the game tonight. I found this photo from Google images.

Back

Hi.

Remeber me? I think that was the longest blogging break I've taken in the past year.

Anyways, here's what we were up to on the 4th:














Since Brant didn't get home from a trip until after 3pm that day (and decided not to run in the 5K that morning since Brant would have missed it) I head to the Freedom Festival Parade with our good friends Rissa and John.

My favorite part?

The missionaries.

Go figure.

Sugi (and other UPM alumni)- check it out. The Utah Provo Mission even has a sweet float in the parade now! Maybe they borrowed that globe from the VC in St. George? haha!

Later that afternoon we had John and Rissa over for a sweet BBQ of Alaskan salmon and hamburgers. Brant did a great job on his salmon complete with green onions as garnishes.

Later that evening we headed over to the fields across from the MTC to watch the fireworks. Fireworks are always fun, but I think everyone could tell this year that there were budget cut backs. It seemed that the fireworks lasted for about 30 min- with a 15 min intermission that made up half of it. It was still fun, though :)

What a great holiday!

Still here

Remember when I used to post more often than I have the past couple of weeks?

It's a combination of having an improptu computer fast plus the lack of motivation to blog.

But we're still here :)

Wishful Thinking

(google images)

Somehow at work, my computer's clock is mixed up- and when I send or receive Outlook invites, the time would always come across an hour ahead or behind the time of the meeting intended.

Well, today I fixed it.

Or I thought I had.

When the digits flipped to 5:00pm in the lower right hand corner of the screen, I closed down my computer, wished everyone a good weekend, then headed home.

Low and behold, I didn't realize until I was already in the car on the way home that it was actually only 4:00pm. And none my of co-workers stopped me!

Hahahah! Happy early weekend to me! And to all of you!

Two Years

And going strong. Thanks for living the dream with me, sweetie.

See the KSL announcement here

Alaska '09

My sophomore year of college, I lived in apartment that housed 4 girls. Three of us were from Eagle River, Alaska (take a wild guess guess which one wasn't). Christy is the only one of my roomates that year who (so far) has moved back to Alaska. And since this post we've been planning what we call Alaska 09.

Since Brant and I got separated on the flights out there, I arrived about 12 hours in Anchorage ahead of him on Sunday at midnight (it was still daylight out!).

Monday, June 1

Monday morning while waiting for Brant's flight to arrive, Christy took me to a local nature park with trails for a mid morning hike (pictured above). This was just the beginning of our trip with fabulous scenary!

(I haven't resized any of these photos- you can get the full effect by clicking on them)














After we picked Brant up at noon from the airport, the first thing that he wanted to see was the float planes at the near local airport. Truth is- this boy had the biggest smile on his face watching these planes as well as our entire time in Alaska :) We figured out that we could spend next summer in Alaska - Brant as a float plane tour guide and me... doing something else!















(This is for Dene (if she still reads this blog). I promise I'm not a creeper - Christy just pointed out your families house on the way up the mountain that evening :)

A short local hike Monday evening... the lens on my camera wasn't strong enough to catch Mt. McKinley in the back.

Tuesday June 2

The next morning our four hour train ride left for Seward at 6:45am (its so much easier to get up early in the morning when its light all night long). The awesome scenary from our seat on the train.

A shot of our train from where we where sitting in the last cabin (passing a glacier in the mountain).

Pretty reflection shot of the mountain...















The train was really fun - they encourage passengers to get up and walk around, sit in the upper level bubble seats (I don't know if that's what they are really called, but here I am demonstrating looking like a cheeseball). They also had an entire cabin for the restuarant that they served breakfast in along with a cabin they called the Tiki Room - complete with a palm tree and snacks.














After arriving in Seward. Christy and Derrick skipped the train ride, but drove down from Anchorage with the camping gear and met us here.

After the train ride and on the ride to the campsite, we headed to see a glacier- so cool (literally!) I was impressed by Christy - she made the almost two mile hike to the glacier and back being 8 months pregnant!
















I've never seen anything like this glacier before...we were huddling for warmth :)

Then it was on to the campground!















As if hot dawgs and s'mores weren't enough, Brant and Derrick topped off the campire by roasting twinkies.















These are the times I wished I had a better lens on my camera.... can you guess what that is...? It's a moose! A wild moose and her baby about 30 feet from our campsite! They just came up and stolled on by us. Of course my camera was giving me fits at this exact moment so I couldn't get a better photo of them.

You probably can't tell (it just looks like the sky in the background), but this campsite was right off the beach. Again, props to Christy for camping while being 8 months pregnant (no complaints at all!). She would have made a great pioneer!



Wednesday June 3

We came to Alaska a little premature for peak fish season, but Derrick and Brant still tried anyways. They got up at 4am for their first trip to the river, then went back again around 11am. (no luck on catching any salmon that day, but lots of smiles and good times) .

My favorite part about camping in Alaska is that you don't need flashlights- its light enough all through the night that you don't have to worry about laterns or taking a flashlight with you when you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night!















After Brant and Derrick were done fishing the sky was so clear that we could see the nearby mountains without a problem.















This is how tractors are used in Alaska. No boat ramp needed- just call the tractor to come pull you out of the ocean! (seriously, thats how it works)






















We wanted to take Christy and Derrick out to dinner on our last night there- and we were hoping for something very Alaskan. I don't think it could get any more authentic than "Mooses Tooth". This was a very popular place that all of the locals go to- even on a Wednesday evening, there was a wait and the place was super busy until about 11pm (when we took this photo... notice again how light it is outside! Amazing!)















Ah, the sun sets on Alaska '09 (our flight left first thing the next morning).

Thanks for a super neat trip Christy and Derrick! We've already started planning for Alaska 2-10!

P.S. And thanks so much for that huge box of salmon you sent home with us!! We grilled the first couple ones the evening we got home :)

What We've Been Up to...

Last Friday afternoon while Brant was working I made a quick overnight trip out to Georgia for my youngest brother's high school graduation (all 5 of us Wilson kids are now Sandy Creek High School Alumni). We may or may not have been a little loud (or even obnoxious) to others around us with our hand bells that we rang in tune to Pompas Circumstance.

I also visited this cute little girl's brother, who was born last week, but wasn't doing so hot and is still trying to add weight to his little frame in the NICU. (P.S. that lil' girl is my neice Claire. I'm pretty impressed that she can sign - as in baby sign language).

Up next : Alaska '09

...And we're back

Photos/ posts comming soon...