Sistz...

...Get your stretchy pants ready!!!

Christmas with the MoTab!

Nick and I went to the Christmas Devotional put on by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with our best friend Tyler and his girlfriend Karly. Tyler won tickets and offered the two extra to Nick and me. We went to dinner and then drove to Salt Lake and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas celebration! President Monson and Francis were even there! Then we walked around Temple Square, got hot chocolate, and then headed home. Overall it was a great evening.

We also went to a Christmas Party up at Sundance with a bunch of our friends. Nick's roommate Mike, has a girlfriend who has a cabin up there. It was really fun and we took some cute pictures.

Thanksgiving in NYC

For Thanksgiving this year, we decided to take advantage of our friend that recently moved to NYC and do turkey day in the big apple. We headed up after work dropped our car off in New Jersey and headed into the city at 1 am with a hot cab driver--he weighed 400 lbs, lived with his mother, and gave us a brief history of why Jersey is better then NYC. Needless to say it was an adventure. We arrived at our friend Lexi's place slept for a few hours and then woke up to attend the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

It was packed with tons of people, but the weather was great so it was not too bad. Here are few of my favorite floats and us at the parade. After the parade we walked around Manhattan, saw the temple, and went to Gray's Papaya.

We spent the rest of the day falling asleep while watching White Christmas, eating, making Thanksgiving dinner, doing hand turkey crafts (mandated by Sarah), eating, watch Keeping up with the Kardashians Marathon, eating, going to a movie, eating, and talking. Did I mention we ate a lot on this trip? It was a pretty relaxing day! Our Thanksgiving dinner turned out great. I did mom's sweet potatoes and homemade cranberry sauce.

On Friday we spent the day shopping in Chinatown and SoHo. We met up with some of our closest friends who were also there and did some serious damage. Meliss and I may have bought matching BFF, chastity rings and between the 8 of us we bought 20 purses in Chinatown!! That doesn't include the 8 pieces of jewelry, 15 bottles of perfume, and 12 pairs of sunglasses. Just helping poor people around the world one knock off purse at a time.

Here are some shots of all the bags we purchased...

On Saturday we went an saw Mary Poppins. Melissa and I had great seats and at the end Mary flies over the crowd--She flew right over us and winked at us. I felt like I was 8 years old again and I think Melissa and I were loving it as much as all the kids surrounding us. Melissa won us front row tickets to see Wicked. Seriously front row in the very center! I could have touch the witches--it was so fun and one of my favorite Broadway shows. To kill time between Meliss and I may have gotten pedis. Sadly, this was my first pedi since moving to the east coast but it was so worth it. It was a great weekend and a nice break from DC.

The difference a year makes

Who would have believed last Thanksgiving that this 3 lb 9 oz munchkin would grow into such a towering one year old? Well, okay, I guess he isn't exactly "towering" as he hovers in the 3rd percentile. But seriously, have you ever seen a cuter boy? Besides of course his equally adorable twin brother?








As a side, here was our table for Thanksgiving. It was really fun for Brent and I to host our first Thanksgiving in our own home. Brent set the table all by himself with just a little direction from me, of course. :)


We missed all the Smarties and are anxious for Christmas when we will all finally be together! Seriously, I can't even wait to see you all!
Cole is officially walking and I think Keith will be by Christmas. You are in for a real treat from your favorite nephs/grandsons!

Viva Puerto Rico!

Well my tan has faded and I've cleaned all the sand out of my suitcase, but since the east coast winter has started I can't help but wish I was back in Puerto Rico. I won a contest in the late summer and decided to celebrate with a trip to Puerto Rico with some of my best friends. Since most of us work for the government, we had a long veteran's day weekend and since moving to DC one of my goals while living on the east coast was to go to PR (incidentally the other is to go to the Domincan Republic--don't worry its on the travel plans for next year!). So naturally a beach trip with good friends was much needed after months of studying and the on comings of a cold winter.
I was the self appointed trip planner--the itinerary included a trip to the rain forest, a historic walk of old San Juan, plenty of beach time, some shopping, and of course great food.

During my travels to Latin America, I have seen more nasty and deformed dogs then I ever wanted to see. Like the over abundance of squirrels in Virgina, PR has surprisingly large amounts of stray cats. I think Grandma Phyl would have had a heart attack. There were literally hundreds of them--and I never over exaggerate!

We tried to beat Darel Ayn's record of 50 Pina Coladas in one week but we only managed about one a day.

For two days we travel to the small island of Vieques off the south east coast of PR. It was one of the largest bioluminese bays in the worlds. At dusk, we kayaked out to the middle of this bay and jumped in the water. Anytime you put anything in the water the color of the water turns from a dark midnight blue to a bright teal blue--almost as if there is a light underneath. There is a micro organism in the water that makes it glow when it is touched by anything. It was one of the coolest things I've done. The next day we went to a beach that only the locals know about. It was probably the most beautiful beach I have ever been on. We were the only ones there for most of the day and as you can see the water was practically clear.

Old San Juan is a beautiful city. It has retain a lot of its only colonial and latin influence but is also very modern.

Ok so I just couldn't resist--I knew I liked Puerto Rico when I saw this sign!

All in all it was a great trip. I did bring my LSAT books and managed to crack them a few times on the beach. It was a much needed break for DC and I would love to go back---anyone want in??

Save the Children

This (like Nick) is my first blog! Im sure that this blog will boring into comparison with all the new buzz on Nick's trip to go see Syd. But that's okay because when you are living at home with your parents you've got to do something to keep yourself busy! Recently I have been on this "fad" of saving little African children. So Chels is the humanitarian worker and I called her up a week ago and I am announcing my trip to Uganda summer of 2010! We are planning to go work in an orphanage and teach them about AIDs/HIVs for two weeks. It will actually be for my senior project and I cant wait to go. Hopefully after I am done with this trip I will have more experience and go back again a second time and help orphans with mental disabilities, which is what i really want to do! Although mom doesnt believe I will follow through with this, I will prove to everyone that I am totally serious about it! I will be earning money this summer to help pay for the trip and when I say earning I mean working in dads office (ughhh!). So help me save the children!

P.S. And if any of you have no idea what to get me for christmas you can get me a pic of African babies or something!

Paris (City of Love)

Well Sydney has requested that I enter into this world of blogging with the Smart family so here it goes. As you all know I had the marvelous opportunity (thank you Sheila and Darrell) to travel across the pond to where Sydney has been these past few months. Sydney was in shock when we met at the Eiffel Tower (pictures capture the true emotion). There is a video circulating out there of the magnificent reunion but I have not been able to get my hands on it. It was the most amazing week of my life. Having never been outside North America I only had ideas of what life was really like over there. I expected the French to be rude and smelly. The latter was true but the French are surprisingly nice I found. The don't eat to well other than the most amazing pastries ever. I am a major fan of the mass transit over there, except for those few times we barely missed the RER. Sydney and I were able to do so much in just five short days. There were no lines anywhere since it is sort of the "off season" over there. Well...pictures say way more than words so I will just give you a few of the near three hundred we took over the course of the week. Enjoy!