me & him: January 2009

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Lost Generation

My friend, Cami sent me this video. Brilliant.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Tannon and I went to Pittsburgh over the long weekend to check things out. It was FAREEZING! I have never felt anything like that. Whenever I'd walk out of the hotel to go outside, there would be a small gust of wind and it would literally take my breath away. Apparently, we went on the coldest weekend of the year. I never got an actual coldest temperature, but it was in the negatives in the middle of the day.

When Tannon and I got to the Pittsburgh airport, we went to the car rental and the lady told Tannon she could get him a Mustang with no additional charge. He was really excited, to say the least. This was the first time in Newland history that he told me I wouldn't be driving this whole trip. I should have gotten that in writing because it didn't take him long to get super frustrated driving in a foreign city. The car was terrible in snow, though. It snowed while we were there, and although it didn't snow very much, it was so COLD that the roads would just turn into ice, immediately. There weren't any plows and they don't salt the roads, either. It doesn't help that there are tons of Hills there. The dang Mustang slid off the road and we got stuck trying to go up a tiny hill.

The people in Pittsburgh are SUPER friendly! When we were stuck, the first car to drive by pulled over and told us there were more hills ahead and that we shouldn't go that way. He asked where we were trying to go and we told him the name of our hotel. Once we got our car unstuck, the nice man told us to follow him and he helped us get back to our hotel a better way. He, of course, made us say "Go Steelers" before he helped us. :-) He thought we were in town from Balitmore cheering for the Ravens.

EVERYONE there are huge Steelers fans! It was so much fun to be there during the big game. We were invited to a party to watch the game and eat some great food. It was so much fun to be there and watch the game and meet awesome people. Thanks so much, James, for inviting us!

At half time, we went to our friend Matty's house (he lives in Pittsburgh) and watched the rest of the game. He lives on this huge hill and has an AMAZING view of the city.

This picture doesn't even do the view justice. It was beautiful looking down from his deck. It was sweet because when the Steelers won, there were fireworks going off and it was so great to be able to watch them go off over the city.

This is the only picture I got of the fireworks, and it bugs me! Just imagine the previous picture with fireworks over all of those buildings. It was sweet.

When we were driving home, there were people EVERYWHERE hooting and hollering. People would run up to my car and give me high fives. It was awesome. We can't wait for the Super Bowl this year. Go Steelers!

We were able to find 2 houses that we really like. We are just waiting to hear back from our first choice to see if they will be moving for sure. We should find out in about a week. Overall, the trip was a success and we had a blast.

We were sad to come home, but excited to get into positive degree weather! I won't be complaining about how cold Utah is for a while.

And of course, our trip wouldn't be complete without an intense game of Sudoku!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

January Mopes

One thing that gets me through those post-holiday depression tendencies are looking forward to the Newland tradition of staying the night at the Brighton Lodge at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon.

*I really have no idea who this random guy is, but Caitlin used the only cool picture of Brighton Lodge in the Google Image search, and since I'm already stealing all of my pictures for this post from her blog, this will have to do.*

It is so much fun to sit in an outdoor hot tub with mounds of snow surrounding you. Heavenly.

The next day, we all packed on our snow gear and trekked from the Spruces campground to Donut Falls. It was absolutely gorgeous and a freaking great work-out.

*Me & Caitlin*

*The+whole+crew-Brinton*

*I feel like a giant next to these two. I'm trying to play it cool by slouching to be their height, but just ended up looking like an idiot.*

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Clean Slate

Happy 2009!

Last year one of my resolutions was to stop speeding. I think it was in January (yep, the same month that I made the resolution) that I got pulled over for speeding. When I told the cop I was really sorry and that actually one of my New Years resolutions was to go the speed limit he handed me back my license and said "You suck at your New Years resolution."

Needless to say, I didn't make any resolutions this year because I didn't want to set myself up for failure.

New Years Eve, we have a tradition of going to the Swenson household. Dave & Chelsey are such great hosts and we LOVE every chance we get to spend with them & their kids. This year, Haley & Mitch were able to join us and it was so great to see them!