I will give you one, wild, guess...

So, can any of you recognize this city?:


I will give you some clues.
1. It is the 4th largest city (population wise) in the United States, and 6th largest (metropolitan wise).

2. everything is BIGGER there.

3. It often--well, hopefully not TOO often, has received distress calls like ______, we have a problem!



I would not have been able to recognize it just from the picture, but this is a city scape that Dane and I are both about to become a lot more familiar with--Houston, TX. So, for those of you who didn't know yet, Dane has been accepted to an internship program for Continental Airlines, Jan-April 2010! To say that we are excited is an understatement. We are greatly anticipating this great adventure, and I am sure that Dane can tell you a lot more about this later, but I just wanted to get the word out.

We will miss so many of you here it Utah, but don't worry, it is only for 4 months, and we will be back!

A sweet treat!

So I don't expect too many of you to understand the magnitude of this, but I wanted to share it anyway. Yesterday, the 3rd of Nov., I flew to Houston to interview for a winter internship with Continental Airlines. While I was waiting for my return flight back to SLC I got to hang out at the Flight Training Facility. I was hanging out with a couple of the current interns, and they arranged a rare opportunity to sit in a full-motion 757 simulator.

This is what a 757 looks like... for those who don't know. :)

This is what a full-motion sim looks like.

This is what the inside looks like. It is an exact replica of a 757 cockpit. This is a $40 million piece of equipment! Super accurate.

They let me Fly!! I did a take-off, circle around the airport and landing!

An awesome experience!

Just for fun

I am sure that all of us have those random times where you find yourself laughing uncontrolably forever. Dane and I had one of those nights, and just because we never want to forget it, I thought I would put it here:


Sunday night, we were relaxing on the couch--me with my toes under Dane because I am sure they were cold, and Dane with his feet on me. With his feet practically in my face, I noticed that his toes had almost a perfect little ball on the end. I saw a pen on the table next to me, and for some reason felt the urge to turn one of his toes into a smilie-face. It was a moment that I felt like being a twit more than anything, but apparently he thought it felt really good, so I then decided to give each of his toes their own personality.





One of the funniest things that happened when we were all done, was actually the next day. Dane got up earlier than I did to take a shower and head to school. When I was up later and in the bathroom, I noticed little blue spots all over the floor. I could not figure out what they were until I recognized them as faces....Ha ha! They had washed off of Dane's feet in the shower and made little stamp marks all over the floor. It was so fun.

I am so glad that we still find times to be totally random and laugh.

Happy Halloween!

So, Dane and I just wanted to give you a little update on our Halloween adventures. Our ward had a party on Friday night and we weren't able to go because I had to work, so we decided to have a little Halloween get together at our place Saturday night with some friends, good food, treats and games. Thanks to everyone who came and all the fun you brought. It was so good to have a night with friends!!

What did we dress up as? Well, that is a great question. I am never really good at costumes, but this year our inspiration came when we were cleaning out our closet and getting rid of some clothes that neither of us have worn for a long time. Dane pulled out a red, plaid, flannel shirt he got some time ago and wanted to give it to DI. I was really hesitant because I remembered how badly he had wanted this shirt and had not worn it as much as we were hoping. I told him to throw it back in the closet and we might be able to use it for a Halloween costume some day. After that, Dane knew what we would be for Halloween this year:Do you remember these guys? Paul Bunyan and his big, blue, ox, Babe!


Somehow Dane's beaver, "Stever" made it into this picture too :)


Like my tail?


What did you all dress up as
this year?

Birthday Celebration! (part 3)

So, here is the final part. My birthday was actually on Sunday and it was a great day. Dane and I enjoyed one of my favorite breakfasts, german pancakes, with Dale and Leisa before church (or as Dane grew up calling them, "fluffy-oven-pancakes"). And then headed to my parents for dinner that afternoon. It was a very relaxed day with only a few meetings...everything that I always hope Sundays can be. My mom made curry and rice, and Emily made a pumpkin and banana-cream pie. Yum.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU so much to everyone who helped make my birthday great. Thanks for just saying Happy Birthday! I found myself overwhelmed by how many people I have in my life that I love, and love me too.

Birthday Celebration! (part 2)

So, the celebration continued in the middle of the week last Wednesday. Dane had told me a few weeks ago, that I was not allowed to work this day so I arranged my schedule and appointments to be able to take this day off. I had a nice morning and was really able to relax without the mental burden of thinking I had to go to work in a few hours. It was nice. Dane surprised me with an amazing evening he had been planning for weeks. First, we met my parents at one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants in Salt Lake, Shanghai Cafe.

Next, Dane surprised me with tickets to one of our favorite bands, Mae. This is a band that Dane introduced me to the day we met a few years ago. They were playing at "In the Venue". It was a great Show! We were pretty close to the front the whole time. All three of the opening bands were great, they even came out and danced with us for a lot of the show. The only thing that we would have changed, is I wish Mae would have been able to play longer. They even had a raffle at the concert where people could bring hygiene items to donate to Road Home for a ticket. They gave away things like signed albums, t-shirts, and last but not least a set list from Wed night's show signed by the whole band.

And guess who won the set list? Yours truly. It was pretty sweet.

Here's a pic of Mae's lead singer, Dave Elkins taken from my phone during the show.

This isn't the best picture, but here we are with Dave after the show. He was so nice!

Thanks for a great night, Dane! I love you.

Birthday Celebration! (part 1)

So, I guess this is going to be a little bit of bragging time for me, but oh well. Here we go. First I have to say that I have the BEST husband in the world and that everyone should be able to celebrate their birthdays for a whole week...yeah, that's right for an entire week.

So this is how it all began:

Last weekend, Dane and I drove down to St. George with Dale to meet up with Leisa, because Dane didn't have school and we needed some time together. This is when the birthday celebration all began.

Have any of you ever heard of (or had) the American Chocolate Cake from Costco? Since Leisa had never been to Costco, it was one of our first stops in town. It was a great Costco day, lots of samples :)

Dane and I had been telling Dale and Leisa about this cake for quite sometime and picked one up to celebrate both my upcoming birthday and Dale's birthday from a few weeks ago. This cake is a-MAZE-ing!

It is everything that a four layer, chocolate cake smothered in frosting and chocolate shavings should be. Not too rich or two sweet, but tons of chocolaty goodness flavor. The label on the cake box says: Nt wt: 7 lbs.....! Yikes. It is huge. Needless to say, we ate the whole thing over the course of 4 days... with the help of some of Leisa's roommates and their friends. Thank goodness.

So, we had a nice relaxing time in St. George, and went shopping, to dinner, to church with Leisa, and of course, on a few really fun bike rides.

One one ride, we road out to Santa Clara and stopped at the Jacob Hamblin house. For those of you who don't know Dane's mom, Janet's maiden name is Hamblin.

Here is a cute one of Dale and Leisa!

I am pretty sure that I have some type of Hamblins in my ancestry as well because My parents have often stopped with us there as well. We got there right before it opened and were taking these pictures when a couple of missionaries who do tours showed up to open for the day.

Here is Dane and me! Don't mind my ghetto-booty with my jacket wrapped up in my back pocket :)

It was nice to go down south to get a little sun before the real cold weather sets in.

Oh yeah, and DALE and LEISA GOT ENGAGED! Congrats!