8 years ago today....

Viareggo Beach, Italy at Sunset

Eight years ago I took an amazing trip to Italy to study Art History and met some of the best friends I will ever have. We spent time in Rome, Florence, Siena, Pisa, Luca, and Venice and saw some of the most beautiful country and art you will ever see. Tonight I opened my journal to see what we did today.... this is perhaps the only time I have been halfway good at keeping a journal in my entire life.....I looked back at the entry for today, it was Saturday May 25th and the 5 of us (the Fab 5) took a train ride from Florence to a beach in a town called Viareggo a couple hours away and spent the day relaxing in the sun. Its amazing that 5 young girls could find their way around a country thousands of miles away to take a day trip to the beach. One of the many highlights of the day was the ride home....if my memory serves me right we got to hear some Italian boys rocking out to Bon Jovi's "Its my Life" with their sweet stereo in the isle of the train.....it was choice. The whole trip was just an amazing experience, we had a fantastic teacher, I met the greatest friends ever and have memories that I will cherish and laugh about forever! To Keri, LJ, Lil Lisa, and Gibby all I have to say to sum up how great and memorable (funny) of a day that was is "Fend For Yourselves."

Seven Years Flys By So Fast...

At the end of April Ben and I just celebrated our 7th Anniversary! Its crazy how time flies! It seems just like yesterday Ben was in the Emergency Room on the way home from our Honeymoon in Mazatlan with a parasite.....That didn't start us off on the best foot, but luckily it has just gotten better every step of the way and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Happy Anniversary Babe!

2003: Blackpool England, competing with the UVSC Ballroom Dance Team....Just 2 weeks after we were married.

2004: Our first of many trips to California. Sitting outside the Rose Bowl in Pasadena where Ben served his mission.

2005: Golfing at the Bear Lake Golf Course

2006: December in Disneyland with Ben's best friend in the world (aside from me)

2007: Summer Trip to Disneyworld, Expedition Everest in the background.

2008: Four-wheeling above the Bear Lake Cabin in the Fall

2009: Hanging out on the beach at Bear Lake over the 4th of July weekend.

2010: Watching REO Speedwagon Live! We were definitely some of the youngest ones at the concert but we had a blast. It was an awesome 7th Anniversary!

I said I would never....

We will call it a result of peer pressure but I have officially jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. I am still a little confused and feel like I need a Facebook tutorial. I update my blog so often, we will have to see how well I do at Facebook....happy networking!

A Boy & His Dog

We were up at Bear Lake for part of the Thanksgiving weekend and I took this picture of Ben & Roxy in the back of the truck and thought it was awesome. These to are tied at the hip. She sleeps on his side of the bed, sits by the toilet when he is in the bathroom, lays outside his office door when he is on the computer, takes Sunday afternoon naps with him and gives him the cold shoulder when he goes away too long. You really can't get a better dog than Roxy. She has been good since she was a puppy and she really is "man's best friend".

Happy Halloween.....a little late

Halloween brought with it our regular fun traditions, Carving Pumpkins with the Cassity's and the Annual Twede Halloween Party. We had a blast with both families.

Mike & Pam's Pumpkins

My Old Witch Pumkin and Angie's happy Jack-o-lantern

Ben's Stitch & Spider Pumpkin

And the clear winner of the Cassity Pumkin Carving is Mike Lee's tribute to Michael Jackson. Pretty amazing pumpkin carving skills Mike!!!

Brayden, Taylor, Candace & Brielle at the Twede Halloween Party

Bethany, Brielle & Ben

Ben and I were in charge of games for the Twede party and we saw this fun idea on Food Network. Its made by Jelly Belly and called Beanboozled. Its got a mix of all the great Jelly Belly flavors but has some of them disguised as terribly nasty flavors and you don't know what you are going to get . Its amazing that they can make jelly beans taste like boogers, vomit and skunk spray. We had everyone taste the identical jelly beans at the same time and it was hilarious to see the reactions of those who got the bad flavors. The worst ones I got were booger and earwax. if you are brave enough they sell them at the Sandy Super Target. It was still fun despite all the gagging and dry heaving!

Are You For SCUBA?

About a month ago we had the opportunity to take a beginner Scuba Diving class with Ben's family at Dive Addicts in Draper. Ben has been wanting to do this for a long time and it was on my list of things I never want to do. Anyone that knows me well, knows I have a fear of water and don't swim well. Taking a class where they add weights to you in order to make you sink and breathing through something other than my mouth and nose didn't sound so appealing. But we did it and loved it! It was definitely scary at first (well for me at least). I think the worst part was when she told us we were going to take the aspirator (what is allowing me to breathe....hyperventilate) out while sitting on the bottom of the pool and learn how to clear water out of it- this is if it ever gets knocked out of your mouth. We went down 12 feet deep and got to play around on the bottom of the pool for about 30 minutes. Ben was a natural and loved every minute of it as well as the rest of the family. I definitely need more work on swimming with flippers. All in all we had a great time and it was an awesome experience!

My New Hobby

I was never much of a reader growing up, in fact I hated it. But as I have gotten "older" I have really learned to love reading---maybe because I am no longer doing it for a grade... Thanks to my sisters and sister-in-laws I have had some great recommendations of books to read. Lately I have a book with me everywhere I go. I just finished my last book a couple days ago and I am eagerly anticipating the Hunger Games sequel that comes out next week. If you have not read the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins I highly recommend it. The Hunger Games is also going to be made into a movie but not set to come out until 2011. Here are some other books I have read during the summer that I have loved...



This is a great adventure series. The first 6 books of the series are available in the U.S right now. It is young adult, but good for any age. Everyone in my family that has read it loves it.

The title is a mouthful, but this book is really good. My sister-in law Dasha let me borrow it, and I loved it so much that I bought my own copy. It is all written in a series of letters so the story is told from a really unique perspective. It is currently on the bestsellers list.



Fablehaven is an amazing series, and as exciting as Harry Potter. There are 4 books currently out and I think there will be 1 more to complete the series. Brandon Mull is a local author and already has a movie contract for the 1st book. He has also written "The Candy Shop Wars" which is a great read as well.