Dusty's Birthday Extravaganza Surprise

Last Friday (November 5th) was Dusty's 27th birthday.  It worked out perfectly that I had the day off (compensation day for parent teacher conferences).  I planned what I titled his "Birthday Extravaganza Surprise."  After taking a leisurely morning and making him breakfast I gave him his first of many envelopes.  We then proceeded to complete a 13 step treasure hunt with birthday fun along the way.  We found him a nice new shirt, cologne, went bowling, went to dinner, and went to the BYU basketball game.  I think I was just as excited as he was during the whole thing.  His "perfect weekend" was made complete by BYU winning thier football game on Saturday and the Raiders winning on Sunday.  Happy Birthday Dusty!

What We've Been Up to Part 2

Here is another attempt as to what we have been up to:

OCTOBER:
More FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL, and FOOTBALL
Dusty finished up his coaching season with McKay.  It was so funny how frustrated he would get.  I would laugh when he would tell me, "They just don't listen.  I have to repeat myself again and again."  Welcome to my world.  Try getting them to READ!

We had a fabulous trip with my family to Disneyland.  It was Dusty's first trip with the Larsens and his first time back to Disneyland since high school (How he has survived that long I'll never know).  We enjoyed driving down and back with Adam and Rachel.  It was great to be able to visit with them.  Dusty survived the trip and even enjoyed our fast pace Disneyland agenda.  We really enjoyed the new World of Color show that they have California Adventure.  AMAZING!

My family said that I needed to be the driver in this picture because I was the most likely to run into a mailbox.  Sadly, I couldn't really argue.  I'll never live down taking the mirror off the truck...TWICE!

Tribute to Alex.  Disneyland wasn't the same without him.

Dusty and I did not do much in terms of October Halloween festivities.  Neither of us are big Halloween lovers.  I did dress up with the other teachers at school for our literacy parade.  At our school we have a literacy parade instead of a Halloween parade.  Really it is the same thing, but you are supposed to find a book to go along with your costume.  We were the Rainbow fairies.  I was Sunny the Yellow Fairy.

Aren't we cute in our glitter, wings, and tutus?

That about sums up October.  I'm getting a little closer to being caught up.

What We've Been Up To

I just realized I wrote this, but never posted it.  Dusty made some changes to what I originally wrote while I was sleeping one night.  More updates to come soon!

It's been about 2 months since I have blogged and I wanted to catch up a little bit as to what we have been up to.

August:
We spent the beginning of August at an extremely hot baseball tournament.  Dusty's boys made it to the State Championship game, but sadly they lost. He handled the disappointment much better and worse than I thought. He is such a good coach for those boys, surprising since he is just a big boy himself!

We enjoyed a lot of time relaxing together before I had to head back to school.  We house sat for my parents and look forward to the day when we can own a house of our own (especially to the day when we have a house as well equipped as my parents - pool, theater room, etc.)

I started school on August 24th, my birthday.  I have the cutest class of 18 (heavenly class size) first graders.  I am still adjusting to the first grade curriculum and mindset, but loving it.  My students are full of life and love for each other.  I love spending every day with them.  I'm sure that I'll have plenty of stories throughout the year to keep you entertained.

Back to my birthday... It was fabulous!  I have the sweetest husband in the whole world.  He got up early to make me breakfast.  Then my Mom (I also have the sweetest Mom in the world) and him brought me lunch at school.  After school, we went to Deek and Stay's for a birthday party for Tage.  (I share a birthday with my 4 year old nephew).  Then we went home for my surprise.  Dusty and my Mom had put away things at our apartment.  They had set up the TV stand and rug that we had been meaning to put out.  Then my husband surprised me with a candle lit dinner and serenaded me with his guitar.  We went to my parent's house for dessert.  My Mom had created a game for me "Who Wants to Open Their Birthday Present."  I had to answer 16 trivia questions to open my birthday present.  We had fun as I used my lifelines (calling and texting family members in the room) and answered the random questions my Mom had come up with.  Finally, I got to open my gift.  It was actually a gift for me, Dusty, Adam, and Rachel.  It was annual passes to DISNEYLAND!  We will be going as a family in a week and half!

September:

FOOTBALL!  FOOTBALL!  FOOTBALL!
I have begun to realize what a football fanatic my husband is.  It amazes me that he can even keep track of all the scores, stats, players, coaches, etc. that he follows.  We have been to two BYU football games and watched three others at the Larsen's.  My faith in the cougars is waning, but Dusty continues to stay strong.

Dusty has also been coaching McKay's flag football team.  Adam has been his assistant coach.  It is fun that it has turned into a whole family affair. 

It is amazing to me what a caring, passionate and multi-talented person Dusty is. He has the ability to do anything, and he does it with so much dedication and excitement. Its funny how he can be so excited for a 1st and 2nd grade football game. After each game he is so excited and he can't stop talking about it, I just listen till he gets it out of his system. But it is a lot of fun to watch him with the kids every week.

Our Honeymoon

We have only been married for 18 days and I am already very behind on our blogging.  Things will probably be a little out of order as I try to recap the last few weeks.  I decided to start with our honeymoon.

We spent our first night at the Hotel Monaco downtown.  Kortni hooked us up with a fabulous suite.  I was sad that we didn't get to enjoy it more.  We flew out the next morning to San Diego.  Dusty decided that we shouldn't eat at anywhere that we could eat at home so we went and got some lunch at Firewood Pizza.  We had a fabulous BBQ chicken and Gouda pizza.  Dusty also learned that his favorite drink (Coke with cherry) has a cool name... Roy Rogers.

We loved our hotel.  We stayed at the Island Palms Resort and Marina on Shelter Island.  We had a nice view of the ocean.  After taking a nap and settling in, we decided to find somewhere for dinner.  There was a magazine in our room that had dining suggestions.  We found two BBQ places that we wanted to try.  We went to the first one and the line was 40 minutes long.  We went to the second one (and after 20 minutes of trying to find parking) we realized that it was more of a club hang out that was crammed with people.  We were starving so we walked across the street and went to the Hennesey's Tavern.  We were both happily surprised.  They had a special on Tuesday nights... buy one get one free hamburgers.  I had a Moo Cluck Oink burger (with a fried egg, cheese, and bacon) and Dusty had a Bamma Burger (with coleslaw and fried chicken strips).  They also had delicious cheese fries.  We were enjoying our meal and realized that it was Karaoke night.  Dusty was SO excited to stand up and sing Margaritaville.  I was impressed with how good he sounded.

Outside the restaurant

Wednesday was spent relaxing.  We went to Phil's BBQ that had the long line the night before.  Dusty enjoyed the delicious BBQ and being able to watch baseball in the background.  We broke our rule that night and got some dessert at Chili's.  Dusty humored me and let me get the cookie paradise pie even though it had coconut.  Yum!

Thursday we were ready to get out and do something so we drove to Knotts Berry Farm.  It was a good opportunity for me to see how much my new husband loves roller coasters.  It was an opportunity for my husband to see how sick his new wife gets from roller coasters.  Overall we had a fun day, but I am done with wooden roller coasters.

I waited in line with Dusty for 2 hours so he could go on the Xcelerator.  He had to sit in the front car which had a line that was MUCH longer.  I tried to get a picture of him before he blasted off at 80 mph but the tree has cut off most of his face.

Outside the entrance after a long day

Friday we had a slow moving morning since I was still feeling sick from the day before.  We checked out and drove to the San Diego temple.  We had planned to do a session, but with our late start we didn't know if we would have time without feeling stressed and rushed to make our flight.  Instead we drove over to Torrey Pines.  For those of you who are like me and the name Torrey Pines means nothing, it is a famous US Open Golf Course.  It was beautiful because it is on cliffs that overlook the ocean.  While Dusty was taking in the view, I spotted Danny Ainge.  I was pretty impressed that I could recognize someone related to sports while not at a sporting event.

The exterior of the San Diego temple is being redone so it wasn't quite as photogenic.

We love to see the temple!

My super excited husband

We were sad to leave San Diego, but excited to come home to start our new life together.  Little did we know that we would have a 90 degree apartment waiting for us.  After several days of frustration, moving back home, and several phone calls we now have air and a renewed gratitude for air conditioning.

The view from our balcony.  San Diego is definitely somewhere we plan on returning to often throughout our marriage.