Boys and their Toys

Since Shane painted his car last spring, he has needed something to occupy his time. He found that in the form of a remote-controlled Rock Crawler. Apparently there is a whole RC Crawler realm in this world and he has become a dabbler in the art. His little hobby doesn't come with a matching budget. But he really enjoys being able to work on it, tweak it and try it out on the rocks. Now he has 2 different bodies for the chasis, one is a VW Bug and the other is a Jeep Wrangler. Both have their unique qualities. The Bug body is more for hard core crawling and helps keep things from getting damaged because it just rolls back onto the wheels when flipped.
The Jeep looks a little more to scale and is really just for fun and looks. Shane's favorite place to climb is out at Black Rock on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake. It's a popular spot too. They even hold crawling competitions out there. I have kind of enjoyed watching him crawl and want to get my own in the future. Shane said that he will take me to Moab for the day during Jeep Safari since I have never been and so we can watch the real crawlers do the same thing on a bigger scale.

Crawling in the Jeep.

Bug body at Black Rock.

More crawling at Black Rock.

Shane's Jeep and Derick's Bronco.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I celebrated my 25th birthday earlier this week. Went to dinner with my parent's and Shane, took half the day off of work and got a present that is so me. Thanks Shane! A girl can never have too much Tiffany and Co.

Can't Hardly Wait!

June 12, 2009

Fast and Furious Trailer

2009 Movies We're Ready For

Shane can't wait for the 4th The Fast and the Furious movie. "Fast and Furious" comes out on April 3, 2009. New model, original parts, which means that I will be with Shane when he goes to see it. Paul Walker will be on the big screen, so you know you can count me in.



Also coming out this year is Transformers 2:Revenge of the Fallen. If you know me well enough, when I really like a movie, I will watch it all the way through the credits for a little hope that something will follow. At the end of Transformers, Starscream leaves Earth and you know that something is up. Sam and Mikayla are back with some new friends, including Bumblebee, which I'm sure will boost sales of the new Camero if it comes out when GMC has it scheduled. 5 months after my birthday, you will find me at the theater. Mark your calendars for June 26 to go see it yourself. And don't forget to catch the first release of the trailer during the Superbowl. I vow not to leave my seat until I see it.

When Ashley gets bored...

After Christmas is over, my shopping is done and the hustle and bustle of the Holidays is gone, the month of January always feels like life is moving in slow motion. Even without working retail this holiday, I still got that feeling right after New Years. Lucky for me, I got a Cricut for Christmas! It has definitely given me something to do when I can't think of anything else. I just go sit in the guest room and make a huge mess of all my craft stuff.
To start with, I got my Cricut the weekend before Christmas, so I made tags for all the presents and Christmas cards for everyone at work. But then what........

...Hmm....Vinyl lettering. I realize that it has been a trend long before I thought of it, but I have never been able to find a saying I like or where to put it for that matter. This was the first thing I did. It is in our living room.

I own a couple different sets of block letters, but now I can make my own. Shane even got in on this too. He went to Lowe's with me to buy the wood, he cut the blocks for me, sanded them and painted them. And that was all without me having to ask him! (I know it was just because he knew that it would take me some time to do it.) I made this set for Valentine's Day. I also made some letters for my mom to put in her laundry room.

I made more than just this one month, but I made monthly calendars for work to sit on my desk. I couldn't decide what kind of calendar to get, so I just made my own. Have you seen the infomercial for the Cricut lately? There is a lady that is just so excited about making her yearly calendar all with her Cricut. I was making fun of her when Shane and I saw the infomercial one day and that night, Shane was the one making fun of me.

More blocks! I'm really going to find more storage space for all my holiday stuff if I keep doing this. But there are so many options out there of things that can be decorated with vinyl. My parents gave us some patio chairs that I was looking at last year. They're white. Maybe........

Most think that I am a scrapbooker, but the fact is that I procrastinate so much that my scrapbooking never gets done. I do however have a passion for card making. Cards are simply a way to share a smile. I made this for one of the girls at work.

And just like blocks, there are so many options for making cards. You could simply make a card just to say hi. My aunt's birthday was Jan. 18th, so Aunt Betty, if you are reading this, it is in the mail. Shane has watched me use the Cricut so much that maybe he'll make me a card for my birthday. I can always imagine, right?

Shredding the Mountain!

Merry Christmas to Shane and I. This year for our Christmas present, my sister Alli, made up fake lift passes for us good for a Day Pass at Brighton Resort and snowboarding lessons. We all headed up there on January 11th so that we could experience the rush of flying down the mountain. I have skiied before, but the only snow sport Shane had ever done was sledding. He did amazing and I was impressed with how quickly he caught on. Me on the other hand.....let's just say that I have a really nice sister to follow me down the Bunny Hill for 20-25 minutes on my first run. It's the hill in the above picture if you have never been there. Little kids were passing me left and right quite a few times, and that was after I figured out how to stand on the board. I envy little kids for how fearless they are. Shane was doing so well that he got back on the lift and made it to the bottom before I completed my first run. Sorry Shane! Anyway, we were getting back on the lift and my parents had shown up to take pictures of us. Thanks Mom and Dad! My second run started better than the first. It was the only run the whole day that I didn't fall getting off the lift. But then I started down the hill and flipped over like 3 times in one fall. I actually heard someone from the lift above ask if I was okay. Never the less, I got back up and kept on going. It was tons of fun and both Shane and I were starting to finally get a hang of it. Before lunch, Shane went with Alli on the next biggest run. After that, he stuck to the bunny hill with me to get a little more experience. Snowboarding is definitely something that we will be doing again in the near future and it was all thanks to Alli for the gift that she knew we would enjoy.

Alli, me and Shane outside the lodge.

Alli and I

Next to us, Alli looked like an Olympic Gold Medalist.

It may look like I was doing okay, but that was just before one of my many falls.

Alli again. A little girl told her she liked all her pink.

Waiting in line for the lift.

Look at Shane go.

My nice sister taking a break with me.

Shane on the lift by himself.

.......And we were only sore for about 2 days after. I got a huge bruise on the back of my knee and both of my knees were swollen. Shane slept like a baby for the following 3 days.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Nighttime view from our Vegas hotel room.

Max enjoyed supervising the building of our new patio awning this summer.

Buddy dressed up for Halloween!

Shane's new paint job!

Alli and Mom at Race for the Cure 2008

Alli and I at Race for the Cure 2008

Biker Shane at Balanced Rock in Arches National Park

Here I am going along for the ride in Arches.

Alli and Cimara on Christmas Eve

My office put together and decorated this tree for Festival of the Trees.

It was a 50's sock hop theme.

The court at the Jazz Season opener against the Denver Nuggets.

Shane's rock crawler

Auld Lang Syne

As the year comes to a close, I thought that it would be the perfect time to review memories of the year. After 5 years at American Eagle as my main job (3 of those as manager), I found myself at a crossroads. I had the chance to move up in the company or start a whole new career. I quit my full-time job at AE and started my job with the State of Utah working for the Department of Workforce Services as an employment counselor. There was a ton of new stuff to learn, but almost a year later, I think I have started getting the hang of it. I turned 24 this year and Shane turned 26. Our ages are getting older, but I don't think that either one of us feels any older that we were when we first got married. We celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary this year with a trip to Las Vegas. I know Shane must really love me if he is willing to spend a weekend in the Vegas heat. The city wasn't that bad, but even I thought that I was going to melt when we were at the Hoover Dam. I started Jazzercise in March. For those of you who don't know, Jazzercise is totally different than what you would think. There are no leotards, brightly colored tights with leg warmers or headbands. I didn't realize how out of shape I was until I couldn't keep up with the older ladies in my class. My mom and I both go to the same class and it has been nice spending time with her and having her there to encourage me to keep going. I had hoped to be in better shape by the time we went to Moab, but there was no need for that. It was cold, total opposite of what we experienced in Vegas. We were stuck in pants and most of the time sweatshirts. To make matters worse, we rode the motorcycle down and didn't really have a vehicle to drive around. But we toughed it out and went to Arches National Park while we were down there. It is amazing to see what the earth can create. We saw Delicate Arch but didn't hike up to it. Maybe when its warmer and I'm not dressed for riding the bike. When we got home, I starting feeling like I had a cold with a really bad cough. Nope, just pneumonia. For a month it was hard to breath, let alone workout. I got past that and still feel that wheezy feeling in my chest. But life goes on! I walked in Race for the Cure with my mom, sister and other Jazzercisers about a week after finding out that I had pneumonia. It made feel good to be out supporting a cause that effects so many women. We spent Father's Day in Wendover like every other year, but this year Alli's 21st birthday fell on Father's Day so she got to be out there with us. Both of our families planned camping trips in August. My mom's uncle has a cabin up at Strawberry Reservoir and we spent a weekend up there enjoying the solitude. Labor Day weekend we took Buddy on his 2nd camping trip with Shane's family to Potter's Pond. If you didn't know, the first time we took Buddy camping we went for one night and it was a good thing. He didn't go to the bathroom once. Shane and I were worrying about the second trip because we were staying for 2 nights. I was so happy when he ran up to tree when we first got there and peed. Sad, but true. He enjoyed himself that weekend and slept the whole way home. Shane bought a remote control rock crawler. It's his new toy. He has been bored since it has started snowing because he can't go crawling as much. The Bird got a face lift this year too. Shane worked hard on the body work and painting the car and it turned out great. He finished it in time to take it to the Wendover car show. Now he wants to paint the motorcycle. We went to lots of weddings this summer. It made me happy that ours had come and past. It still doesn't feel like two years though. Shane got tickets from his work to go to the Jazz Season Opener against the Denver Nuggets. It was a great game. With the way the economy went, both of us weren't laid off. Shane feels pretty secure with his job and I have almost passed probation at mine. This year, we had Thanksgiving at our house with Shane's family. I had never roasted a turkey in my life, or even watched someone do it, but ours turned out okay. It made a good end to the year. We spent Christmas with our families and ended the year together.
We've had a lot change in a year and are looking forward to making 2009 even more memorable.