October
October was a really busy month for us! Nate was traveling for his internship, so I was left alone for days at a time. At first I thought it would be awful and that I would be bored to death! But as it ended up, I was so busy with homework that I didn't have a ton of time to be bored. Around bedtime when I was tired of doing homework was the worst, so I just went to bed.
Anyways, October was fun because we had lots of activities going on! As an early Christmas present, my parents sent Ryan four tickets to see the University of Southern California Trojans play the University of Utah Utes in football. Ryan is a huge USC fan, so he was really excited to go. Nate and I took Ryan and his friend Cori to dinner at The Pie before the game. I love The Pie because it is this underground, dark, greasy pizza place that is overpriced and sooo delicious. Whenever we go to Salt Lake City I want to stop and eat there. Knowing where this hidden gem is makes me feel so cool, like I'm in on some big secret that isn't really even a secret, but makes you feel special anyways. The atmosphere is so angsty: it's dark, has weird music, signatures and notes are sprawling all over every possible inch of the brick walls and ceiling, old 90s arcade games are stuck in the corner. I usually feel a little out of place at first, then remember how fun it is to people watch.
Back to our adventure: so we went to eat before the game. Ryan is so excited that he gets to see USC play that he is on the verge of picking a fight with nearly everyone in there (playfully... kinda). We get to the game, and sit in the nosebleed section with older, alcohol-consuming adults. (The atmosphere of Utes games are SO different than BYU games. Granted, we sit in the student section, but even these guys who were obviously not students were more into their game than most BYU fans are.) At first, USC starts off playing an ugly game. It looked like it was going downhill fast. I almost regretted coming, wishing I would have given Ryan all four tickets so I didn't have to deal with his frustrations. We got picked on just a bit, but it was all in good fun (until our neighbors found out we were BYU students, at a Utah game, cheering for the opponent. They were not very happy with us). Pretty soon, USC started to turn their game around and did great! Everyone around us finally shut up and Ryan was able to gloat. USC ended up winning, which was fantastic!
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| Sea of Red! |
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| Nate, Me, Cori, and Ry |
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| Loved going to the BYU games too! |
We had a great Halloween date with Trent and Kristen! We got together to carve pumpkins, eat yummy roasted seeds, go on a Halloween River Cruise, and drink homemade carmel-apple cider. The river cruise was pretty cool! We crawled down the river while looking at jack-o-lanterns and listening to scary stories told by the man rowing the boat. Kristen and I tried to surprise Nate and Trent, but they had already figured us out. Poo!
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| Trent doesn't like pictures |
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| Our minion pumpkin coming to life |
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| Yum! |
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| Silly Timmons |
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| Excited for the river cruise! |
We also got to go to Cornbellies Festival! Cornbellies is a great fall fest filled with a gigantic corn maze, games of corn hole, pig races, joke-telling chickens, play houses, sandboxes filled with corn kernels, and other fall-themed events. This was our fourth and final time going! We have gone every fall that we've know each other and was a special time for me. I wanted to make sure we went one last time before we would potentially move! This year our group shrunk considerably: there were just four of us and we all had a blast together. We love being with Mike and Haley! Plus, they brought us cheesy fries and introduced us to Costa Vida's nachos which are delicious, so we like to keep them around.
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| Mike and Hales |
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| I lassoed a fake cow! I should live on a farm... |
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| Hales did it too! |
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| Nate's working on it |
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| Mike's good form |
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| We found a huge tractor |
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| We finally made it out of the maze! |
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| Victory! |
November
November was a very fast month! I participated in the BYU's Lazyman Ironman event which was super fun! The challenge was to complete a full Ironman by the end of the month. An Ironman is a triathlon of long distances, where I had to: swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles. But, instead of completing the race in one day like the real champs, we had 30 days (hence, Lazyman). It was unseasonably warm, so I was able to run outside without any huge problem. It took planning and discipline to exercise every day during classes and while on vacation, but it was worth it! I proved to myself that I could finish something like that and it was a great feeling. I proudly wear my finisher's shirt.
We also went to California for Thanksgiving which was great! Sadly, I don't have any pictures of our adventures. I must have forgotten my camera! Ryan had received his mission call to the Mendoza, Argentina mission, so we were able to go through the temple with him. It was awesome! Grandma and Grandpa Isom and Grandma Lynn joined us for the special day. We enjoyed the warm weather, ate ourselves sick with delicious food at the Daley's house (compliments to Mom and Julie), saw movies, and just enjoyed being together. Unfortunately, we had to go back to school for the last few weeks of the semester.
December
YAY! I love December because it means the end of the semester, tantalizing smells, tasty treats, anniversaries with my sweet hubby, and Christmas! I wanted to get Nate something totally awesome for Christmas, so I bought him tickets to see his favorite basketball player, Chris Paul. Paul plays for the Los Angeles Clippers and they were coming to play the Utah Jazz early in the month. He got his early present just a week after we came back from our trip to California. We stopped at the new City Creek mall for dinner and then headed over to the game early to watch warm ups. We were able to get on the floor to take a picture before the game started, which was awesome. We stayed in the lower bowl to watch warmups and the beginning of the game, but then got kicked out to our nosebleed section seats (hey, we're poor college kids, whaddya expect?).
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| Red Iguana for Dinner |
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| Oh, hey Chris Paul |
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| Clippers Won! |
We finished out the last few weeks of classes and sailed through finals. All this time I was working at the Missionary Training Center in the Human Resource office. I hired students, fixed their time cards, called mission presidents, etc. which was all pretty fun. I had worked there for 16 months and had my last day on December 14th! I would be starting an internship in January and wanted to have the break to spend my time freely, not having to worry about being back for work so I finished on the last day of finals. It was sad to leave my friends, but I was excited to start a new job!
Because we had the whole break (Nate didn't need to be back for work either), we were able to spend 2 two and a half weeks in Boise with his family. We filled the days with circuit training and Wii yoga, per Ben's suggestions. It is a good thing he was there to instigate these sessions, or we would have gained some serious holiday weight! We had a blast doing it every day. We played lots of games, played in the snow, went running, played tennis, ate lots of food, went to several restaurants, hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Reece, and planned our Christmas Eve program!
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| Lots of game nights. We had to help Grandpa a few times |
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| Wii Yoga sessions |
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| Wii Fitness Age testing... We had to test every day |
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| Ben prepping for his 12 mile run, which I did with him! He had to carry a 50lb rucksack which made it a bit harder |
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We enjoyed a few temple trips
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Tennis pros
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| More tennis pros |
We celebrated our 2-year anniversary on December 21st. We went out to a fancy dinner at Yen Ching, a family and local Chinese favorite. We walked around downtown, exploring shops, the City Hall, and then stopped at the Melting Pot for dessert. YUM! It was wonderful to spend some time together, just the two of us. The last two years went by so fast! The next year would bring lots of changes, too.
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| So happy to have his picture taken |
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| Lights at the Capital building |
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| A present from the Melting Pot |
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| Dark and white chocolate fondue |
Miller family tradition is to have crab on Christmas Eve, and this year we went all out! We had crab legs, salmon, shrimp, lobster tails, and a few side dishes. We ate ourselves silly with all the yummy food! Then each couple took turns sharing a short Christmas themed devotional/thought. We sang some Christmas songs and then ate some treats! Christmas morning was filled with breakfast casseroles and strudel cakes. My family tradition is to have these on Christmas morning, so we integrated plans a bit. We spent most of the day opening presents, eating new and leftover food, lounging in our jammies, calling other family members, and playing with our new toys.
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| Logan enjoying his treats |
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| All the family |
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| The remains |
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| The tree plus the pictures from our story |
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| Chantelle + baby and Jason |
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We named the baby Leondre for a few weeks
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| Yummy breakfast casseroles |
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| My new rainboots! |
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| The boys found their fishing poles! |
Although it snowed several times, most of it didn't stick, so we had to get a little creative with our snow recreation activities. We pulled a sled behind one of the cars (slowly, don't worry) but it kept catching on the road because there was so little snow! It was only moderately successful because eventually we carved a hole in the sled. Oops!
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Lindsey getting a ride down the street
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| My turn! |
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| Carved a hole in the sled |
Man, the food we had was good. We always eat waaay to much when we visit but we can't stop because it is all too tasty. We had to stop at Merritt's to get their famous scones. Everyone loved them and we ate way more than we should have, but they are just so delicious. We also had lunch at Big Jud's, a burger place famous for making a 1-pound hamburger patty. Nate, Ben and I split the gigantic burger (which came with 1 pound of tater tots) and were still stuffed. Nate's mom also prepared rocklette, a method of cooking where you fill individual-sized dishes with cooked meats and veggies, top with cheese, and slide it under a griddle that heats everything together while grilling bread on top. Yum! We had fondue a few times which was extra fun.
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| Delicious scones |
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| My favorite: lemon and powered sugar |
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| Big Jud's burger! Look how huge this is! |
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| My 1/3 of the burger |
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| The spread |
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| Too full |
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| Rocklette |
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| Nate's mom showing off her fondue set |
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| Just hanging out in Logan's lift. Woo! |
