10th Row Jazz Tickets

Last Monday I was literally handed 10th row tickets to the Jazz vs. Suns game. My boss was on a call with a friend of the company and asks "Does anyone want tickets to watch the Jazz game tonight?" I immediately raised my hand and she told the person on the phone that I was a taker. Within minutes the tickets were e-mailed to me and next thing I know Andrew and I are sitting 10 rows up from the court banging the blow up noise noodles and watching Shaq post-up on Millsap. It was incredible and Baby Skeen had a blast too. She was kicking out and stretching out with every outburst. Kirilenko had a great game and the team played an awesome 4th quarter. They ended up winning 109-97. We miss Daron Williams, but we think CJ Miles is doing a great job too.

What to do with your pumpkins

For those of you who still have your pumpkins sitting on your porch and are trying to figure out what to do with them, instead of chucking them in the dumpster (boring...), we recommend taking them out back and shooting them! Andrew's idea was to use a sharpie and draw fat rabbits and turkeys. We unloaded quite a few rounds on them with his 22 rifle. I usually don't join Andrew for target shooting, but this sounded awesome and it was.

Halloween Hangout

This Halloween Andrew and I went to the first annual cousin's party on Thursday and on Friday we threw our own party. We made caramel apples (topped with chocolate, nuts and butterfinger bits), carved killer pumpkins, drank wassail, and had I Am Legend playing in the background. We consumed way too much sugar, but certainly had a lot of fun. Not to mention the costumes were amazing. Check us out!

Park City Weekend

Last weekend Andrew and I decided to get out of our average Provo/Orem weekends to spend some time up in Park City to see the leaves, shop around, and tour the town. We ended up having a really nice time.

The original plan was to spend the night on Friday and have the whole day on Saturday to do whatever, but it was so expensive and we didn't get home from work until very late on Friday so we decided to scrap it and make the trip in the morning.

The leaves had already turned brown, but it was still a beautiful day. We spent the morning at the outlet mall, took a break for lunch at Loco Lizard, made a spontaneous stop at the Olympic Park (a first for both of us), and circled back to the outlets for some final purchases. I have discovered a new love for Park City, besides just the good shopping. It is definitely a nice drive and a nice place to escape to. I am sure if I was in a more active state we could find some awesome biking/hiking trails as well.

Here are some pics from outside at the Utah Olympic Park. The museum inside was really fun too, but we didn't take any pics.

What's been missing this summer...

Last weekend, out of the blue, Andrew's longtime friend Jeff called to invite him to take a run on his boat. We were really excited because several of you may know that we canceled two Washington wakeboard trips this summer because we have been so busy. We went to Utah lake and Andrew got his first, and probably last :(, wakeboard fix of the summer. I hung out on the boat with Jeff's date and her sister-in-law (also pregnant) while the boys tore it up (Andrew really impressed them all with his "skills"). Wish we had more of a summer to play!

20 Weeks

Labor Day Weekend - Zion National Park

We have been wanting to go camping all summer and since we couldn't make it out to Potholes, WA for the family camp out we really felt the need to camp on Labor Day weekend. The criteria for me was that it couldn't be more than a 4-hour drive and it had to be somewhere where I could put on a bathing suit. Andrew decided on Zion's and made reservations in the park for Saturday and Sunday night thinking that it would for sure be busy with the holiday.

As the weekend approached we heard news of a flash flood warning. I thought rain would be fun, but then I realized that Andrew's 2-person lie-down tent would make for a long weekend if we were stuck in the rain. He went out and found us a larger tent the night before and it turned out great.

Overall we had a great weekend. Saturday we set up our tent and hiked to The Upper and Lower Pools. On Sunday we found a church building and hiked part of The Narrows and on Monday we hiked to Weeping Rock and then hiked 5 hours back in The Narrows. The water was pretty dirty from all the rain on Sunday night and we had a hard time seeing where we were stepping, but it made it more of an adventure. We also hiked up through the forbidden Orderville Canyon until we made it to a waterfall. The walls in the Narrows were hundreds of feet tall and it was such an amazing experience to be hiking down between them.

Thanks Andrew for a fun weekend!

Who's idea was this?

So somehow Andrew and I ended up with a box containing the top of our wedding cake after our reception (I don't even remember when my mom gave it to me). According to tradition you are supposed to keep a part of your cake in your freezer until your 1 year anniversary when you get to "enjoy" it together. We listened to tradition and kept that box stuffed in our freezer for a whole year. Needless to say, we were very curious to see how the thing faired after a year. I think the pictures tell the whole experience, but what I want to know is who's cake actually tasted good after a year of freezer-burn?

Anniversary Weekend

We had our 1 year anniversary on August 18th and celebrated all weekend. On Friday Andrew had made reservations for us to eat at Cuchina Toscana, a fancy Italian restaurant in Salt Lake and then to stay at Hotel Monaco that night. For dinner, I had the pesto gnocchi with shrimp and Andrew had the mushroom stuffed steak with Caesar salad. It was all marvelous.

The next day Andrew and I rode our bikes around the city in search of breakfast. We didn't have any plans set for the day or evening, so Andrew and I decided to try out Logan, UT to see what it had to offer. It made for a sort of weird adventure.

We made reservations to stay at the Sherwood Hills Resort on our drive out there. When we got there we immediately asked if there were trails for biking/hiking. They said yes and handed us a very simple-looking map with a few lines drawn on it. We picked the .5 mile route to "the lookout" and started up it with our bikes. Pretty soon it got to steep so we ditched our bikes and began to hike. About an hour later, we began to wonder where this lookout was. The map had become useless. We were about to head back when we saw our first sign of human life, a painted rock with the word "Stop." The trail appeared to end as well. We were so confused and couldn't believe how anti-climactic it was. We decided to ditch the trail, ignore the sign and just hike straight up the cliff to find our own lookout. That we did.

We weren't very impressed with the hotel after all, and decided that we would enjoy it just as much to go back to our nice, clean apartment in Lindon. We ate dinner at Chili's and cut our adventure short.

The one thing we were really excited for was the Jack Johnson Concert we had tickets for on our actual anniversary night. I left work early and Andrew and I met up for our date. It ended up being so much fun. I didn't know this, but we ended up with "pit" tickets so it was quite the surprise to get there and be practically on the stage with them. Jack was great and Andrew and I just enjoyed the evening talking, laughing, and dancing. Not a bad 1-year I'd say.

HE DID IT!

These pictures are actually from last August when Andrew walked with one independent study class to take. One year and 2 extensions later Andrew finishes!!! Talk about last minute. I honestly wasn't sure he was going to do it. But, I have to say we are pretty relieved and I guess we can celebrate now ;). Congrats Andrew!

This is the sample diploma Andrew got... still waiting on the real one.He graduated with Ryan and Becky too!Proud family.

Sunday Exploration

Since we know very little about Lindon and our neighborhood, we thought it would be fun to go for a little drive after church to check out the area. We kinda got the feeling that we were in a pretty ritzy area and after seeing some of the houses, we were definitely right. We drove up near the base of the canyon and saw some amazing houses. We even pulled into the driveway of a house that is up for sale to check out the view. When we were driving up and through one of the neighborhoods we found the entrance of Dry Canyon. Andrew was curious so we got out of the car and hiked part-way up the trail so that we could see around a large rocky ledge. Here are a few pics we took along the way:

This is the front of a "house." We should have taken way more of the houses we saw, but this was definitely the biggest--it wouldn't even fit in the camera.

the back of the house.This is up Dry Canyon. We hiked between those rocks.

Ummm... girl?

So on Friday night I stopped at a boutique where I found out a month ago at the register that I had some credit a jacket I returned over a year ago. Susan told me that they have a really cute baby section so I thought I would try my luck at maternity-length shirts and then take a peek at the baby stuff. I was on the phone with my mom when I spotted this dress and although I don't know whether I am having a boy or a girl yet, I could not help but pick this up. I do have a little inkling that it could be a girl, but that's no doctor's opinion. Haha... if it's a boy I will just return it and still have the credit I started with. Anyway, I thought this was adorable.

Davidson Girlfriend Reunion

Last year it was Jackson Hole, WY and this year it was Greenville, SC. Every year at least 7 of my girlfriends from my first 2 years at Davidson College and I try to get together for some sort of informal reunion. Erin from the group's dad had a house up in Jackson Hole so we went there last year and this year Emily had us head over to her parents' new lake house. We stayed there from Wednesday until Saturday of last weekend. We had a lot of fun catching up and seeing what everyone was up to. We watched movies, ate "southern" and kayaked on the lake. Love those girls.



Freshman Roommate
Sophomore Roommate

We're Moving

It has been a year since Andrew and I moved in together and although we have really like where we are living, it has been a long drive for me to get to work in Salt Lake from Provo. We originally tried to find something in Lehi, but nothing worked out. The compromise? We found a 2-bedroom basement apartment we liked in Lindon. It is a beautiful home and the family upstairs seems really nice, but most importantly, it has a dishwasher :). Andrew is excited that they have a basketball court and a trampoline just outside our door. I am excited that there is a walk-in closet and 2 sinks in the bathroom.

We think we might be pregnant.

Ok, so the word is out... if all goes well, Andrew and I should have a new member of our family by the end of January. We are very excited to try the parenting thing and feel so lucky to have such great family around to help! Andrew thinks we should name it Jet-Skeen (pronounced jet-skiing). I told him I'll have to think about that one.

Goin' to Carolina...

Last month Andrew and I took a trip out to North Carolina for his friend/old roommate's wedding. I decided it would be fun while we were there to take Andrew to see Davidson, where I went for my first 2 years of college. We spent some time in Raleigh for the wedding and drove down to Davidson and stayed with the awesome LDS family I met while I was at school. They have since built a lake house and it was nice to be able to enjoy a few days with them there.

Manly Milestone

(Andrew, as a boy)

About 2 months ago Andrew started talking about guns and buying a gun for himself. I am not exactly sure what spurred it... but in order to convince me WE needed one, he talked about food storage, self-defense, blah...blah...blah... My dad had guns in his closet and owned one at the age of 12, however, I for some reason wasn't too exited about having one in our house. But, since he persisted in researching online, and talking talking... I realized that it wasn't just a faze. By the time Father's Day weekend rolled around I knew Andrew was going to want to take me to see the gun he found at Sportsman's Warehouse.......So that I wouldn't have to endure another conversation of him trying to convince me about why he should get one, I decided to surprise him by getting him a large gift card. I had guessed it--the first thing he wanted to do was drive Sportsman's Warehouse. He found one he liked and the funny thing is that in the end I had to be the one buying the gun, using the giftcard I bought him because Andrew was going to be late for his softball game. How ironic :). Anyway, needless to say he is pretty excited!

Here is a picture of the gun Andrew bought:

Madison Naomi (Skeen) Miller

Here's our first niece! Kristen and Kevin had their first (of many to come :) on May 22. When this picture was taken, she didn't have a name yet. She's dang cute though, and keeps getting cuter. Rachel and I go and visit as often as we think Kristen and Kevin will allow without getting tired of us. We'll have more pictures to come of Madison and her favorite person (uncle andrew).

Timpanogos Cave

Today Andrew had the great idea of going on a hike up to the Timpanogos Cave. It was about a 1.5 mile hike to the cave entrance and the actual cave tour lasted about 45 minutes. It was a beautiful day and when we got there we found out that today was the opening day of the season! We learned all about calcite, helictites, stalactites and stalagmites (I admit that I had to look the terms up).

Inside the cave

Squeezing through narrow walls

The Heart of Mt. Timpanogos

Inside one of the chambers

Awesome view outside

It's Official!

This past Friday, I was handed a diploma and awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising and Marketing Communications. Jenni, Kristen and Kevin graduated too! So, Wednesday night both Andrew's parents and mine flew in to spend the weekend celebrating. We flip-flopped between families and got a lot of free meals out of the whole thing :). It was just nice to see our family again and to feel their support and to laugh with them. Andrew is in the process of finishing the one online class he has had since he walked last August so in a couple of months we will get to say that we are both BYU grads!