Late Night Water Fight

Last night, Brian and I had a water fight. In our apartment. At 11:00 PM.

It was awesome. I don't know if our apartments would look very favorably on it, but it was so much fun. And we only had our little squirt bottle that I use for haircuts, so it wasn't a lot of water, but man! So great!

Being with Brian has helped me learn how to relax and just have more fun. And he's much more laid back about things, so I've tried to do that too. So instead of freaking out when he playfully squirted me, I chased him around and stole the water bottle back and continued the fun night of flirting and chasing and laughing. It's the things like that you remember when you look back on these first days of living in cramped apartments.

2 Year Anniversary

On March 17th, we celebrated our 2 year anniversary. We celebrated by going to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Neither of us had been there so we decided to try it.

Don't we look so happy?

The food was ok, though not my favorite. My favorite part of dinner was the raspberry lemonades with sugar-coated rims. :)

We were pretty full from dinner but we couldn't go to the Cheesecake Factory without eating some cheesecake. We got some to take home and eat later.

We came home and rented Ghost Town and then ate our cheesecake during the movie. We ended the night with some sparkling cider and toasted to another great year. It was a nice relaxing evening and just a perfect way to spend our anniversary together.

Blast from the Past

These are two of my best friends from childhood. Mikelle and Sydney. When my parents moved to Sandy when I was in third grade I became best friends with these two and we played together all the time. We moved in different circles in high school but we were still in the same ward so we were still pretty close. After high school we all moved to different places and lost touch a little. Mikelle and I got married (and moved into the same ward here in Salt Lake, ironically) and Sydney went on a mission. I don't think I had seen Sydney since before her mission actually.

Last week Mikelle called and said they were trying to get a dinner planned with all of us to catch up. Last night we all went to dinner and had a great time. We talked for 3 hours! It was so fun to see where we've all been since we were little together. I really love these girls.

My Sleeping Buddy

As seen in my last post, my husband is sometimes not home at night when I still need to get some sleep so I can go to work the next day. But I struggle to sleep when he's not there next to me, so I have resorted to using a place-holder. :) Meet my teddy bear. I have had this teddy bear since I was a little over 1 year old. I don't remember who gave it to me, (some friend of my parents) but I've loved it ever since. I'm not saying it's the same as having Brian there, but it works for those few nights when he's not around.

Taking the Time

First of all I want to thank everyone for your great suggestions. It helps me realize I'm not the only one that gets frustrated with this kind of thing. And I'll probably be taking some of you up on your offers. :) It's great to know I have such wonderful friends.

So, we're a week into March and we're just itching for Spring Break at our house. Spring Break means a lot of different things.

First, it means that the weeks leading up to Spring Break are full of stress. Brian is working late nights and is constantly at the Architecture Building. He has a midterm review next week so he's trying to get everything finished for that.

Second, for Brian it means sleep. And biking. If the snow is melted. And he's probably not going to work even, unless he's really bored by the end of the week. He just needs some time to recharge. Also, at least this year, we're probably going to St. George at the end of the break, for more of the biking, and to celebrate.

Celebrate what you ask? The third meaning of Spring Break, which is OUR ANNIVERSARY! St. Patrick's Day is our 2 year anniversary. I can't believe it's been two years. I'm sure I'll spout more about how wonderful and great Brian is once the day is actually here, but I'm excited.

So yes, we have multiple reasons to be excited for Spring Break, but until then there's still a lot of stress on Brian. So last night, after I got home from the baby shower and when Brian got home a little while later, I decided we needed a Spring Break preview. :)

Sometimes you just need to take those few moments you may have to just be together and do something other than sit in your house or go to bed. Brian happened to get home just before 10. Usually he'll sit down on the couch, looking glazed over and exhausted, and last night was no different. But I knew that if I didn't get him out of the house and doing something where he didn't have to think that he might lose it. (OK, not really, but he needed a break.)

So I suggested we go for hot chocolate, or Slurpee's, or ice cream, or something. Just get out of the house. Brian suggested...sock shopping. :) (I needed new socks because mine tend to get holes in the heels.)

So we drove down to Smith's Marketplace and yes, picked up some socks. But we also just walked around. We just wandered. I could see the stress just coming off his shoulders. I know he still has stress and has lots to do, but I think it helped to just not be thinking about any of it. Any time he brought it up, I distracted him by pulling him to look at something else in the store. We even ended up getting him a "good" Frisbee. (He wanted a real one not a kids' one.) Then of course we grabbed a pint of Half Baked ice cream and headed home. We stayed up to watch David Blaine (who is kind of creepy but hard to look away from) and ate the ice cream together.

Today Brian went back to school, and he'll probably be stressed all through next week until Friday night hits, but I'm glad we took the time to just go do that. I think those are the things you'll remember down the road. Sure you remember the stress and how hard things were/are, but those are the times you create memories. :)

Why I Love St. George

Because we are heading to St. George in less than 7 hours, and because I am bored at work, I decided to post about why I love St. George. In no particular order:

1) It's Warm! Warmer than Salt Lake anyway. Even when I was younger and we'd go down over Thanksgiving weekend, the most we had to wear was a jacket, if that. And we still managed to go swimming outdoors.

2) The Red Rocks. As soon as the mountains get a little smaller, and the rocks start to turn red, I know we've made it through the long 4 1/2 hour drive. :) I get excited every time. And they're just beautiful. I especially loved hiking the narrows when I was younger. I was so skinny that I was able to walk almost the whole way through facing forward, while everyone else turned to the side. I haven't done it in years, mostly because I start to get a little claustrophobic. But I remember the good ol' days of climbing up there and running around. And then just playing in all the caves around there. (And giving a tour of our beautiful home, right Lisa & Heidi?)

3) St. George, for as long as I can remember, meant family. My Grandma & Grandpa Barlow moved there when I was young, and so we would go down & visit them all the time. They had this great condo with plenty of rooms to explore. At least it seemed huge when I was little. And when we would drive down after mom & dad got off work, we'd arrive really late, but my grandma would have warm homemade cinnamon rolls waiting for us. :) They were SO good. And they had a refrigerator with an ice dispenser in the door. That is where I discovered my love of eating crushed ice. I would just grab a cup and eat ice all day long. Which worked in St. George, because if I got too cold I just went outside for a couple minutes to warm up. :) I could go on forever.

Anyway, I just have a lot of good memories of going down there for huge family reunions and packing everyone in wherever they would fit. And a few years ago, when my Barlow grandparents moved up north to be closer to family, my Walker grandparents bought a condo down there instead, so we still continue the fun of gathering down there as a family.

4) Shopping! I was never a huge shopper during high school, and even my early years of college. It's not really fun when you don't have the money. But when I moved home from Logan, I went down to St. George with my aunt and her kids, because I needed to get away. And it was then that my aunt taught me a very important lesson. "Why spend $100 on therapy, when you can spend it shopping & feel just as good?" One of my favorite places to shop is the outlets in St. George. I especially love when Brian comes with because if he likes what I try on, then he doesn't feel bad about spending the money for it. :) There is also a Chocolate Factory Outlet that sells really good candies. Their carmel apples are also a favorite.

5) The Frostop. This place is my absolute favorite place in the world for burgers. But there is only one in St. George. It's kind of a cross between Arctic Circle and Sonic, but way better. They have great burgers, and the scrunchy fries, which are awesome. And the shakes and freezes are wonderful. And Nat will understand this more than anyone, but they have the "good ice"! It's the little ice balls, which are the best to munch on. :) We're weird, we know. I have to go to Frostop every time we're down. It's just better than anything. I'm already craving it.

I could probably keep going if I waited long enough, but I'll stop there. It's a pretty good summary of all the things I love. And it explains why Brian and I want to move there one day. Just as soon as we have the money to build down there. :)