good-bye provo

well, it's done. we left provo this past week. it was definitely bittersweet, we'll miss all the friends we left there, but we're excited for our next adventure! basically monday-thursday just felt like one long day of packing, cleaning, and moving. by the time we left provo friday morning we were totally exhausted. but the best moment of the week was thursday night when we had a little going away dinner with some of our closest friends.

we ate pizzeria 712, took some pictures, said some good-byes. after dinner a few of us went to zak's, and jeff and allie were able to join us for some brownies and ice cream, and then with a few more good-byes our time in provo was over.

it's been a good six years provo, thanks for all the memories!

zak, sarah, elisa, chelsea, me, kyle, scott, jackson, andrew
(and david taking the picture)
we'll miss all of you!!

someone took a picture at zak's place of jeff checking out harry potter clue
so i thought i'd throw in our last pic of jeff and allie!
we'll miss you guys too!

sanctuary

last week kyle and i went to zion's. to camp, to hike, to connect with nature, to get a tan, some exercise, see the sights before we move, and to realize how much we'll miss when we leave utah.

zion's was great. we learned from the very informative bus speakers that zion (in some language that i can't remember) means sanctuary, and that's how the park got its name. we also learned that isaac behunin, one of the first mormon (and white) settlers of zion's is our bishop's (wendell behunin) great great grandfather. so that was pretty neat.

we also that learned that it gets very very hot there. 107 during the day was our average temperature that week. combined with the high altitude and burning sun, we got heat sick every day we were there. no matter how much water we tried to drink, or how much shade we tried to seek. we also both got sick to our stomachs at one point, i got car sick from the twisty roads in zions, i got badly sunburned on my back, and we both got pretty sore from hiking. so it was a little rough, but overall it was a good trip!

we camped at zion's ponderosa ranch, it was nice because there was a pool, restaurant, and real bathrooms that we could use. it was not so nice sharing the camp with 2 boys camps, one youth conference, and 2 girls camps who kept us up at night with their songs about sipping cider with cute boys.

our first hike was observation point. the views were awesome, and the hike was so fun! but the 8 miles, much of it steep steep steep! completely destroyed my out-of-shape legs. after recovering at the pool the next day, the third day we hiked the narrows. i'd hiked it before when i was 11, and it was just as fun as i remembered!

oh also we bought a new camera, so we have pictures! lots of pictures!

hike to emerald pools

our campsite

camper kyle

the view from observation point

our pano shot

the steep steep trail, that turned my legs to jello

we had fun playing with some of the features on our new camera

it was just such a cool trail through the canyons

relaxing at the pool

the narrows!

that cold water felt so good...

this is actually the boulder i jumped off of into the water when i was eleven and hit an underwater  rock, which is how i got the scars on my shins. while taking this picture several hikers told me to jump into the water, uh yah no thanks guys!

awwwww

he's a graduate!

kyle is officially a graduate now! he finished his internship on june 15, and he took his national certification test the next day. and with that he was ALL. DONE. he now has a B.S. in clinical lab sciences, and since BYU doesn't hold a graduation ceremony at the end of spring term, we had our own little celebration!

kyle's parents were in town for the weekend, and it was great to get to spend some time with them and with kyle's little brother scott who just got back from his mission to denmark. so, saturday after kyle finished his test we went to BYU and had a little photo session and then kyle's parents treated us to a yummy graduation dinner at our favorite place--pizzeria 712! the favorite pie of the night was a corn and goat cheese combo, so gooooood mmm....

congratulations baby!! i'm so proud of you and all your hard work!

good-bye BYU!

the proud parents!

my handsome graduate!

the next day we headed up to kaysville for a delicious brunch with aunt pat. it's always fun to see her, and she was extra thoughtful by telling me and kyle that she tried to make some food that we would eat. haha, which included a meatless quiche AND she even got the eggs from her next-door neighbor's chickens! not to mention the delicious sour-dough bread, fruit, and potatoes. it was all so so good!

later in the afternoon, after church and some digestion time i made a 3 salad dinner, potato salad, pasta salad, and green salad. along with some herbed foccacia and strawberry lemonade. then we all just lazed around with full bellies and chatted and half-watched soccer until i made some bittersweet chocolate and pear cake for dessert. afterwards we played clue, and i was even able to persuade kyle to play with us!

the next morning kyle's parents treated us to kneader's yummy french toast and then it was time to say our good-byes. but we're looking forward to seeing his parents more often after our move to texas!

brunch with aunt pat!
scott, aunt pat, me, kyle

saying good-bye

running dirty

well it's been a while since i've posted and a big reason why is that my camera has finally died. no matter how many pairs of new batteries we put in it, it just won't turn on. so we now have 3 non-working digital cameras in our apartment. grrrrr. but we need a new camera soon because exciting things are about to happen around the poulsen household! 

#1 - Kyle graduates THIS week! He has four days of his internship left and then he will officially be a college graduate!

#2 - Kyle's parents and little brother (who just got home from his mission in Denmark) are headed to Provo this weekend

#3 - Next week me and Kyle are headed to Zion's National Park for a week of camping and celebrating kyle's graduation

#4 - We're leaving Provo in just over 2 weeks!!

#5 - Once we leave we're headed to Montana for a family reunion over the fourth of july

#6 - And from Montana we're taking an epic road trip down to our new home of Katy, Texas!

i fell like these are all camera-worthy events so i'm not sure yet what we're gonna do but we need to figure it out in less than 4 days!

but i do have some stuff to catch up on. so since the last post we have:

-well after being sick over kyle's birthday, i had an infected tooth pulled, and then my car died, it was just a bad week all around

-we met up with danielle and stephen on their way through to denver, along with some other friends for dinner and sand volleyball

-we ran the dirty dash! it was a 5 mile course through mud and lots of obstacles. it totally kicked my butt, and it was a ton of fun! i do have 3 pictures of this because i bought them from the photographer they had on site

-we had a fun barbecue at jeff and allie's new place

-i hosted a baby shower for andrea this past weekend. i'm so sad i'm gonna miss the birth of her sweet baby but it was fun to celebrate together with cinnamon rolls, donuts, fruit, and friends!

 

one year older, wiser, and sexier

my man turned 24 yesterday! with every year he just keeps getting better and better (since i've known him since he was 18 i feel like i can say that). he really is such a wonderful husband, friend, son, son-in-law, student, worker, teacher, priesthood holder, and man. i feel so blessed to be married to him and to share our lives together.

it was fun having his birthday on a sunday and being able to celebrate together all day, unfortunately the weekend didn't go exactly as planned...

saturday morning at 3am i woke up feeling extremely nauseous, hot, and sick and knew i was going to throw up. and i did. repeatedly. while kyle held my hair back and cleaned out the bowl. (still not sure if it was food poisoning or a stomach bug, but it was definitely a surprise attack of misery)
well, long story short, i ended up being way to sick to go to work that day (and came close to losing my job because of it--eek!) and i did not leave my bed, except to go to the bathroom, from friday evening until sunday morning. annnd i slept for an impressive 20 hours!

so my sweet husband cancelled his plans for saturday to hang out with his friends and then cancelled the reservation i had made for his birthday dinner that night at our favorite pizzeria 712. instead of celebrating that night, my poor husband spent his time taking care of his sick, smelly, wife.

sunday (kyle's actual birthday) i felt better enough to leave the bed! and i was determined to make my hubby's birthday a special day.
so to start the day off right i whipped up a quick birthday breakfast of french toast. well back-up, before i did anything yesterday, i took a much. needed. shower.
then breakfast, then i had to rest a little.

a few hours later i decided it was time for some birthday lunch. since we had to forgo pizza the night before, i cooked up our favorite homemade vegan pizza.



photo and recipe from ohsheglows.com http://ohsheglows.com/2010/10/17/project-food-blog-challenge-5-a-pizza-complex/  (notes: i usually make my own crust recipe, and i skip the olive oil+garlic spread on the dough, since the pesto you spread on the dough already contains both of those, also i usually add some red pepper to the roasted veggie mix)

fast forward a few more hours, i baked some birthday brownies, stirred up some hot fudge sauce and then threw together a birthday dinner of our favorite fajitas.



recipe and photo from 100daysofrealdfood.com
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/06/21/recipe-fajitas/
(notes: mmmm....)

then friends arrived, we chatted, sang happy birthday, and enjoyed the brownies topped with ice cream and hot fudge sauce. (kyle's favorite dessert)
the closer we get to leaving provo, the more we realize how much we'll miss it and our good friends here. thanks for the great night everyone!

(notes: i purposely avoided having my picture taken yesterday, because even though i felt a little better i was still pretty sick and looked it too)

the happy almost-engaged couple

kyle, andrew, sarah, zak

birthday boy!

jeffrey, allie, chels, david