Another Season Has Begun!

Live with Dancing with the Stars! Fall isn't just for football fans, it is also for avid ABC watchers! All of my favorite shows are starting back up, one of which is Dancing with the Stars! From tonights episode, it looks like it is going to be another great competition. I am looking forward to the fun dances, stand up comedy, the bloopers, and seeing how the stars improve each week. I am a huge fan of Cheryl Burke. She could make anyone look like a pro. I also am looking forward to seeing more from Donnie Osmond and the pro dancer Ashley and her new snowboarding partner. There were some pretty neat dances tonight and some of the star dancers weren't too shabby. I always like to predict who is going to win from the very first episode, but I can't decide between two couples. It is going to be a close competition. Parley will have his Monday night football fix and I can have my dancing fix. Ha! FHE, Football, and Dancing with the Stars, what more can you ask for on a Monday night.

Awe The Weekend...

TGIF (Thank Goodness Its Friday)! I am so glad the weekend is here. Now that I am working at the Primrose West Plymouth school, I look forward to Friday nights, Saturdays, and Sundays. I love working with all the little pre-schoolers and the afterschool kids, but by the end of the week, I am exhausted. I really enjoy my job though and it is helping me to prepare to become a mom. This week has been a crazy week. Primrose is short handed so I have worked extra hours to help them out, which by looking at my apartment, it shows that I am a bit behind. Good thing I will have most of today and Saturday to clean it up. What a mess! Tuesday night I went out for a GNO (Girls Night Out) with some ladies in my ward. Boy, was I in need of one of those. Ha! We ate at Mongos Grill... so, so good! We laughed, talked, and enjoyed getting to know each other better. Thanks girls for a really great time! Parley has been studying every night for an hour or two. He is doing a great job. Keep up the hard work honey! Tomorrow is another exciting Utah game. Go Utes! They are playing Oregon. They are 2 and 0 right now and we are hoping they continue their winning streak. We love the "U" games. After the Utah game, Parley and I are going to be heading up to the Albertville Outlets. I've been wanting to go shopping there and check it out for sometime now. We have passed it a couple of times driving to various places and it looks to have really great stores. I love outlet stores because you can find awesome stuff for great prices.... Not only am I excited for shopping, but I get to spend quality time with my cute husband. Date night will have to be on Saturday. We'll eat at a nice restaurant and do a little shopping while we are out. We have quite the weekend ahead of us!

Go Vikings

If you can't tell already, we love sports. It's awesome to live in city with professional teams for all the major sports. Parley's friend has season tickets to the Vikings and gave them to us for their last pre-season game against the Cowboys. This was my first NFL game. I'm more of a college football fan, but this game was fun too. I have a pretty sweet picture of Tony Romo while he was standing on the sideline, but Parley said the only way I could post it is if I let him include one of Jessica Simpson...well, that's not going to happen so you'll just have to believe me that I saw him. The Vikings are off to a great start, winning their first game today. It's fun to have Brett Favre here in Minnesota since he is one of Parley's all-time favorite NFL players. Hopefully he'll help them have a good season. I dated Parley last fall, but since we were long-distance I didn't see how completely obsessed he is with the sport. I better work more on my hobbies because I think he'll be doing alot of football the next few months. If the pictures seem small, click on the collage to blow it up.

Baseball & Church History - we live great lives!

I'm doing the interview, but I think Angela's on-the-field reporting skills are getting pretty good! And she's even better looking than Erin Andrews! This is a great clip. It's so cute when she tries to describe these things and it's fun to teach her all about sports. This trip was awesome. We saw all the church sites down in Missouri; Independence, Far West, Liberty Jail and Adam-On-Diaman. The day we got down there we saw the Royals play the Angels. The Royals aren't very good, so there were no scalpers out selling tickets...we were in line to buy some and a couple in front of us turned around and gave us some for free. Now, that's clean livin'! ha. Our seats were in the upper level, but we sat instead about 15 rows up on the 3rd baseline and then moved down behind the dugout towards the end of the game. The Angels won in extras. I've been to alot of baseball stadiums but this one was one of the nicest. They've done some really cool renovations and have a huge screen center field that rivals the new Texas stadium's as the biggest in sports. Angela asked me if I had to give up watching either baseball or football games, what would it be...I couldn't answer because Utah football games would be impossible to give up, but I'm in heaven anytime I get to see a professional baseball game. It's one of my favorite things in the world. I've attached a few pictures from the game and the sights that we went to.

Angels/Royals game in Kansas City - beautiful park

This is in Jamesport, the small Amish community between Far West and Adam-on-Diahmen. This was a really cool place. We loved the drive through rural Missouri.
Far West, Missouri on the plot that was dedicated by Joseph Smith for a temple. Some day...
This is the view looking out over Adam-0n-Diahmen
Historic Liberty Jail

This is an exact replica of the jail, on the exact spot (the ground is the original cement). You can't see him very well from this angle, but the guy sitting on the floor is my 4th great grandpa, Caleb Baldwin. It was a very spiritual experience to be here and also really neat to learn more of my ancestor.

Looks confused, huh? This is the other church (besides the RLDS) that broke away when the Saints trekked west. It's on the original land that was bought in 1831 to build the Independence Temple, but then sold to these 2 splinter groups so could join the Saints in Utah. The LDS Church bought some of it back years later. The Community of Christ (RLDS), Church of Christ, and LDS church all have buildings next to each other on this block.

Dah Dah Dah Dah Daaaaah...GO UTES!

Another Utah football season is upon us. Parley and I love the fall because of the beautiful trees, the smell in the air, and most of all FOOTBALL...My favorite sport! The game vs. Utah State was a pretty good game and we are off to a great start. Hopefully the Utes will stay strong and finish again with a bang like last year. Victory! There is nothing better than dressing in your favorite Utah attire, gathering with friends, eating chips and salsa and watching a Utah game on t.v. Since we are not in Utah to go to any of the games, this is a very important tradition to uphold. We can't wait for another great game this coming weekend. We love our friends in the ward, but there are WAY too many BYU fans! :) That is never a good thing. We're lucky to have the Allyon's though, because they are die-hard Ute fans like us! BYU had an impressive win against Oklahoma, but it really doesn't matter because we will beat them again in November. We'll be in Utah for Thanksgiving weekend and Parley is going to that game. Go Utes!

Study Time!

It's time to get right down to it.. studying for the GMAT test. Parley has buckled down and started preparing for the ever so nerve wracking buisness school entrance exam. He has planned to hit the books for 2-3 hours, three times a week. He said this morning. "It is like running the Ragnar, even though training was so hard, practice made perfect, and I got through it just fine. I hope the same applies to the GMAT..." Way to go honey, that's the spirit! I am really proud of Parley for taking the time to prepare. He really wants to come out with flying colors and I know he will.

Ragnar

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We did it and we didn't even die! That's a SHOCKER. The Ragnar Race was a complete blast. We ran 3 to 4 times during the day, night, and then day again! We are crazy! I think my favorite run was during the wee hours of the morning. Can you say 3:00 am? Parley rode a bike right along side of me...he was my inspiration. He's amazing. We loved the enthusiam of our team and the support they gave each and every runner. It was so fun to run to the end of our long, hard legs and see our team cheering us on and waiting for us at the transition points. We want to do it again next year for shizzle! Thanks to our great friends and teammates from "Run MG" for making that 29 hours so memorable. We love you all!