Thoughts on 2011

Its been about a year since we have started this blog and I really enjoy writing about our lives and also following our friend's blogs as well. I asked Brendan what his thoughts on 2011 are and in one word he said. "Awesome". Awesome, indeed. What a great year it has been I think we have broken some kind of new record for us by not just taking on one new hobby this year but many hobbies. The two biggest ones have been mountain biking and rock climbing. I never thought I would enjoy these two sports as much as I do. There is nothing like screaming down a hill or climbing a rock like a little kid again to remind you that you are capable of anything. I did knit my sweater this year and bake some bread as well but none of those hobbies compared to everything else we did. The best part was always having my best friend by my side to do all those things!
Besides my best friend and husband this past year has also included some great, life long friendships. I am so grateful for our friends Andy and Lexi and Sara and Zane. Through almost all of these fun hobbies we always have company, which makes everything so much more fun. We have also been blessed to have more family here in Utah in 2011 with Brandy and Tommy only three miles away and Charlie down in Salt Lake. As much as I miss people in Minnesota, I have not been homesick here.
We are looking forward to spending Christmas with our MN families and friends but ringing in the New Year here! I believe 2012 will be another incredible year with big plans!
Love
Alyssa and Brendan

December

Time just continues to move on faster and faster! Our Thanksgiving was wonderful. We continued a fun tradition with friends and ran a turkey day 5k in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Afterwards we all went over to our friends house and had an awesome day. Literally the entire day was devoted to eating, drinking, crafting, games, hot tubing and being merry! We are so lucky that we have friends here in Utah who love to do this as much as we do.
The next day Brendan and I also continued a new tradition for us from last year where we popped champagne and put up the tree and all of the decorations. I have a Ballerina tree that Brendan has slowly tried to integrate into a non ballerina tree. I have been collecting ballet ornaments since I was a very little girl and putting up the tree every year always brings back so many good memories. Somewhere down the road I hope we have a little girl, a white tree, hot pink lights and we can have a very specific Alyssa Ballerina tree and maybe a White regular green Christmas tree elsewhere! I love the advent season just something about December always makes me happy!
In a really good news, Brendan got a full time job! It is as a sales analyst for a company here in Utah called InContact. He does not graduate until this fall but this spring semester he only has one and a half credits really left. So he decided to get a jump on his classmates and get a job. He interviewed with a few companies but really enjoyed the culture and connected with the people at InContact. I am so proud and happy for him and us, hopefully this will lead to some exciting things ahead in 2012!
Love
Alyssa and Brendan!

Pictures from my parents trip!

Updates!

Not much is new, I have been pretty sick lately. We had a great vacation when my parents where in town a few weeks back. Every year my parents come down during Minnesota's MEA weekend. This year they spent one day up in Park City then we headed down to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. They loved it. We stayed at the Desert Pearl Inn Hotel and enjoyed some gorgeous weather and great meals. We also did a lot of hiking taking them on Emerald Pools, Grotto hike along the river and the river walk. It was great our hotel had a nice hot tub to enjoy after all the hiking. I will try to post some pictures up here when I get some from my Dad. Work has been good, just getting ready to swing things into high gear with our busy time of the year. Brendan is starting to interview for jobs in hopes of getting a job that starts soon. Maybe this spring we can start house shopping and see where our next adventure take us! Looking forward to Thanksgiving with friends, running the Turkey Day 5k and the mountain opening up for ski season. Hard to believe this will be our second season here!
Love
Alyssa and Brendan

Rock Climbing

New hobbies are awesome, the latest one being rock climbing. I have always wanted to rock climb and we got a groupon a few weeks back for an introductory class not far from where we live. I was hooked, it is like being a little kid climbing trees again. Lucky for us, our awesome friends Andy and Lexi also rock climb. They are really experienced and know exactly how to do everything. We had the great opportunity to go outside twice with them in the last month. Once in corner canyon in Draper and the second time in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was incredible and very addicting. I'm hoping for one more climb before the snow comes but we will have to see! We did manage to get a good mountain bike ride in a few weeks back at Crest, we also did a short ride at Glenwild near our house today. It has been a good month, busy, stressful at times but good. I am very excited my parents are coming to town this next week and we are taking them down to Zion for the first time, it should be pretty incredible.
Love
Alyssa and Brendan

What we have been up to

This post has been overdue for a few weekends now. Currently I am sitting in bed with Brendan next to me, drinking our coffee and just enjoying our Saturday morning. In a few hours we are going to our first rock climbing class which we are so excited about. Another fun, adventurous hobby. Then we might go camping tonight, with our friends Andy and Lexi. It is getting colder here and camping will not always be an option in a few weeks.
Labor day vacation to Michigan was so much fun. We started our trip with a wonderful meal at an Italian restaurant with Brendan's Aunt and Uncle Mike and Laura. They were kind enough to lend us a car to drive up north to Canada Creek. We are so lucky we have such awesome family both in Minnesota and Michigan. I could hardly believe when we arrived up at Canada Creek at midnight that Brendan's grandparents had waited up for us. What a wonderful welcome and how special did we feel! The next morning we just enjoyed everything Canada Creek, swimming in the lake, a hike, driving out to Little Joe and just enjoying it all. We had a great dinner, popped some champagne and just enjoyed. Afterwards we went out with Papa to spot some elk which we found like always.
The next day the weather rained, but sleeping in on a cozy bed and hearing the rain outside was wonderful. After finally getting moving we started our day of eating. It was Papa's idea to go to Mackinac City and enjoy some good meals. We ate lunch at the Rusty Anchor then headed to Mackinac City for some shopping and ice cream. For dinner we went to the Hakmatac, this is the same restaurant we went after we got engaged. Funny enough the picture above is almost the same picture we took three years ago! It was a wonderful trip, Brendan's grandparents and Aunt and Uncle made it so awesome for us both. We are looking forward to some fall activities now and some Utes football!
Love
Brendan and Alyssa

We love Canada Creek, it is a special place to Brendan and I for so many wonderful reasons. We had a great weekend up there over labor day that was just exactly what we wanted and needed. I wanted to post these pictures because they remind me of certain Canada Creek rituals we have. One of those is breakfast at the ranch house, I don't have this pictured but every time we go there Bren orders the same skillet. We enjoy breakfast with coffee with a fantastic view of the lake and delicious food. The walk there and back always is nice as well.
Another tradition that Grandma Barb always seems to do at some point through the weekend is invite her best friend Marilyn over for either tea or wine usually around 3 to 5pm. I love this, I hope someday I have a best friend who lives near me that we can do this together. Barb always invites me to be apart of this and it always makes me feel so special. Marilyn has become a great friend of mine as well, she even attended our wedding in Minnesota.
I love the picture of Bren and Papa, this is what they do on a comfortable afternoon! I love it!

The Cottage

After we got left Canada Creek we drove down to Brendan's Aunt and Uncles house to enjoy some lake activities and good times. They have a cottage on the water that always makes me feel like summertime. Some fun things we always do are waterskiing, wake boarding, an evening pontoon boat ride and good meals. Laura and Mike are great cooks and made an awesome beef tenderloin and vegetables with parmesian. I love the picture looking out on the water because it just feels like the perfect end to a great weekend. The other picture is our lovely table with our delicious meal just about ready to eat. You can tell fall was in the air and it was one of the last gasps of summer!

Alyssa Wakeboarding

This is a video of me wakeboarding, I am not terribly good at it but I enjoy giving it a go in the summer months when I can't be snowboarding.

Video of Brendan Waterskiing

This is a video of Brendan waterskiing at the Puff's cottage. It was a really choppy day and this was one the last runs he did. I still think he is fantastic and I wanted to post it.

Where did August Go?

This month has gone by so fast. It has been awesome though, we started the month by going back to MN for our friend Joe's wedding to his lovely bride Hannah. Brendan was a groomsman in the wedding, Joe was also in our wedding. The wedding was a lot of fun, we also finally got to see the Minnesota Twins stadium too. The reception at the wedding was a blast, lots of dancing, good food and a gorgeous hotel to stay at. The next morning my Mom and Dad had a bbq at the house to celebrate all of the birthdays and family. I love my family, who would have thought five years ago the joyful chaos that is now Brecke get togethers. I love it and every time I see the boys they just keep getting bigger and bigger.

The weekend after that Brendan and I celebrated our two year anniversary. We drove down to Zion National Park. On Saturday we did the most incredible hike I have every experienced. It is called the Narrows, you probably have seen pictures of it somewhere. Almost 95% of this hike is done in the water. On a hot August day it was divine. There was even a part so deep that the water came up to my shoulders and I was on my tiptoes. Someday I want to canyoneer that whole canyon! We stayed at our favorite hotel the Desert Pearl Inn, check out the video below for a little tour. We had a nice Anniversary dinner at Spotted Dog and just enjoyed spending time away and together. On our drive back we looped around and saw Bryce Canyon. That is like visiting another planet the hoodoo rocks are so cool. We didn't do any hiking but it was fun to see.

This past weekend we celebrated Bren's belated birthday with a BBQ with friends on Saturday. It was fun, his cousin Charlie moved to Utah so we got to spend time with our Aunt Laura and introduce Charlie to some of our friends here as well. We had a burger bar, we made burgers then had all sorts of different toppings to put on each burger. I love our friends here, they have truly made Utah feel like our place.
Next on the agenda Canada Creek, three years from when we got engaged over labor day! Gorgeous, crisp, colorful fall weather! Utah Pac 12 football and MEA with my parents coming to town. Life is blissfully good!
Love
Alyssa and Brendan

Our Anniversary in Zion

My First Sweater

Mission Accomplished! I finally finished my seamless sweater after six months of knitting. I think that might be my last sweater for sometime. It is a lot of work, the great news is I will actually wear the sweater. I realized I really enjoy socks, hats and scarfs because they go fast and I lose interest quickly. Maybe I will start working on Christmas gifts for next year!
Brendan also started up an old/semi new project working on his motorcycle. I will have him do a post explaining everything he has done and what he is doing currently. All I know is it involved the engine and lots of intricate parts.
He is currently in MN for our friend Joe's wedding, he is in the wedding party. I will go home next weekend for the wedding and celebrating all of the August birthdays (Ross, Jay, Mom and Brendans'). The weekend we get back is our Anniversary weekend and we are heading back down to the Desert Pearl in Zion to enjoy a night away. It is also cool, thats the weekend Brendan's cousin Charlie is moving here. I love it the more family in Utah the better! We are hoping to make it to Canada Creek in Michigan over labor day. Not only is Canada creek one of our favorite places in the world but labor day marks three years since getting engaged at Canada Creek. I hope it all works out and we can spend time with Bud and Barb and just savor northern Michigan.
Summer is going great and I am looking forward to the fall time, my parents already booked their usual "MEA" trip out to visit us. I look forward to that every year.
Love
Alyssa

Summer captured perfectly!!!

Pioneer Day

There are certain things I love about Utah one of them is Pioneer day. What is Pioneer day? It is a Utah State Holiday on July 24th were we celebrate the LDS/Mormons (Latter day saints) and pioneers coming to Utah. Why didn't the Scandinavians in MN make a holiday in MN to celebrate surviving their bitter winters and awful bugs? The whole state of Utah shuts down and if the holiday lands on the weekend you either get the day prior to the weekend off or the following day. It is fantastic because it is right between the fourth of July and Labor Day, perfect timing on summer and a day off of work! We don't have huge plans this weekend because we are hoping to have more travel in August.
We have just been mountain biking a lot, Bren is playing around with clip in pedals and what he thinks of those. I have been doing a lot of hot yoga about twice a week. It is a room heated to about 100 degrees to start then Vinyasa or Power Yoga for about an hour and a half. It is awesome and such a workout. I had some blood work analyzed a few weeks back and found out I am hypersensitive to carbohydrates and refined sugars. I have been really disciplined about watching what I eat and avoiding these foods in particular. It is incredible how fast my body is responding to it and how I have been feeling. You forget how over processed so many of these foods are and how they really are not designed to be overly consumed. It is tricky but I am finding with a little planning ahead I can make my body feel how it optimally should. Pretty incredible to find that out at 28 years old. Brendan has been really good about helping me be disciplined and make good choices. I can still have natural sugars, red wine and all the protein I would like, that at least makes up for the lack of things that are no longer a good option.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Love
Alyssa

The Summer of the Mountain Bike

Time just doesn't slow down at all, I have a premonition I will blink and the gorgeous fall will be here already. This summer has been the summer of mountain biking. I have the bruises the prove it, literally I don't think a week has gone by that my legs do not look like someone took a golf club to my thighs and calfs. Totally worth it, I just wish I could help my clumsiness! Bren and I have been putting our bikes to good use usually doing about two or three rides together a week. It is such a workout, I don't know of any other sport besides sprinting that has made my lungs burn quite that way. Bren loves it and tends to do more like five or six rides a week. We are so lucky we have great trails right near our house.
The end of June was a busy month, Brendan went to Vegas for a work/internship convention. I wish I would have been able to go but it just was awful timing for my job. My job continues to go great, I got a promotion on top of my already amazing position I will also be the lasik department supervisor. I am pretty pumped and honored, I just hope I can exceed the expectations. Brendan and I went out to celebrate last week at Easy street, nothing like fresh oysters, champagne and red snapper topped with crab. Gosh, I love good food especially eating at nice restaurants. I am a very lucky wife to have an awesome husband who loves these things too.
The fourth of July was cool, lots of bbqs, friends, family and good times. Fireworks got watched, ribs made, corn and watermelon eaten and some sunshine taken in. I would say mission accomplished to all things American. I am just hoping the rest of the summer continues to be incredible, hopefully camping next weekend, another holiday weekend, some weddings, our anniversary and lots of mountain biking in between!
Love
Alyssa and Brendan

Summer is in Full Swing

Finally, after snow throughout the month of May, I feel like summer has officially arrived in Park City, Utah. May was a very fast month and topped off by my best friend's wedding. Her big day was stunning, great weather until the actual ceremony during which it hailed so the ceremony was inside but everything else was outside. Besides the weather it was an incredible day, gorgeous wedding and a memory I will always cherish with my best friend!
After getting home and getting back into the usual work week Brendan and I went camping with our friends Andy and Lexi. Funny enough, Andy and Lexi are both from MN and we reconnected with Andy after we moved here. He graduated from Eagan the same year we did, and since then the four of us have had a pretty good time. We have done some fun mountain biking together and camping. I am uploading a video from us camping two weekends ago, below this post. We had a good time and are hoping to get two or three more trips in this summer.
June is going very fast, it seems very hard to believe we are not far away from the 4th of July and officially having lived in Utah for one year. Incredible, wonderful and bittersweet all at once. I still get shocked at the gorgeous surroundings (the camping sight was literally forty five minutes away from where we live). Everything continues to work out and we are blessed with good jobs, a nice place to live and meeting great friends. Only bittersweet in the sense that I wish I could have all of this and all of my family right here as well. Oh well, at least our blog and skype can help us feel apart of MN and MI as much as possible.
Love
Alyssa and Brendan

Camping in American Fork Canyon

Three of Four Accomplished!

What a month it has been! Wow, wow, wow! I am so relieved to be done with three of four events I have been planning out for months. Last weekend started everything off when I went home for my best friend Allison's bachelorette party. It is funny how suddenly vacations have turned into trips home to MN, I don't mind it is always fun to see everyone. I timed my trip home almost perfect and got to go to my cousin Austins's going away party, Tyde's second birthday and just missed my nephew Lennon Richard Lake Brecke being born by days. It was a good trip home, we had fun at the bachelorette but my favorite part was just seeing all my family and friends. Now the fourth big event is Allisons wedding next weekend where I am the Bridesmaid of honor. After that is over, I have no big events coming up and summer can commence.
My job has been so busy lately, I feel like I walk in the door blink and it is five already. My other two events were this past Friday and Saturday. We participated in the Ogden Marathon both the expo friday and the mid way relay station Saturday. I am amazed by people who run marathons, all ages, sizes and types. If you ever thought you couldn't do it, attend a marathon and see for yourself that anyone can do it. Planning for these events has been going on since last fall, it was so busy but incredible and a great experience. Brendan is so awesome and woke up at 3am to come volunteer with me for Saturday, I am so lucky to have such a great husband.
We finally got our mountain bikes we both got Giant FX dual suspension bikes. I got a great deal because I got last years model, Bren and Tommy got this years model. It has been a blast so far learning something new and getting the hang of it. Our friends Andy and Lexi have also helped show us the ropes.
I also started my sweater that is for me, so far the arm holes are down and I am onto the next step. I just hope to finish it before the end of the summer. I can't wait for summer, mountain biking, camping, knitting and just enjoying it all.
Love
Alyssa

May Day

I am a bad blogger and did not get around to updating in April. I was too busy celebrating my birthday! We had a great month and really enjoyed the ending of the ski season. The last day will probably be one of my most memorable as I finally was able to land jumps at the hill and Tommy landed a rodeo five (a huge jump). At the end of the day we bid the hill farewell sitting in lawn chairs in the parking lot, enjoying a beer, getting a goggle tan and watching people throw down on the huge jumps. It was epic, as was my adorable goggle tan. Most days on the hill started with a hearty breakfast, a full day on the hill and picking up groceries in all of our ski gear. Usually ending by making a yummy dinner and watching a movie with a roaring fire going in the fireplace. It was a good winter not to mention all of the snow that has still not melted.
Easter was great Tommy's girlfriend Brandy was in town and we had some other friends over for a BBQ. We made Tom White's famous ribs and just enjoyed playoff hockey and good company. We feel so lucky that we have good friends and family here that we can enjoy holidays with.
Monday was my 28th birthday and a great day. It has been an awesome year and I just have felt so lucky in how everything has worked out. I'm so thrilled for Brendan with school, Park City, my job and just how much I have fallen in love with Utah. The weekend prior we celebrated my birthday by restaurant hopping, Easy Street for cocktails and appetizers, Oishu Sushi for dinner and High west for whiskey flights and truffles for dessert. Yes, life is good. All topped off by all the good wishes and phone calls from family and friends. I can't wait to see what this year holds...
Brendan got a great internship with a company based in London and trying to expand over into the US. They have an office in Park City and he will be overseeing a group of undergrad students and leading projects. It is a great fit for him both for international business experience as well as allowing him to attend school at the same time. He is taking a few credits this summer.
Next weekend Tommy graduates and Tom and Kathy are coming to town. We are planning on going down to Zion and enjoying some hiking and nice weather. We also started another new hobby for this year, we are getting mountain bikes with our tax return! I cannot wait! We hope this month brings everyone joy as hopefully the weather finally warms and flowers bloom!
Love
Alyssa and Brendan

Brendan at Snogression

Alyssa at PCMR

Alyssa at Snogression

Springtime is Here!

Life has been wonderfully busy lately. Brendan just got done with his school spring break and we had over eight family members in town. It was great seeing everyone the only bummer was spring skiing did not happen and we had some nasty more winter-like weather. Today was the first day that the sun was shining, it was forty degrees and the snow was softer. Last Sunday the wind was shutting down a quarter of the mountain and it was biting cold wind. Although the only advantage to having winter like weather was one day Brendan was able to convince the others into renting powder skis and experiencing powder with the right equipment after a huge amount of snow at Alta. I had to work that day but I loved hearing all about it later. Hopefully the weather will behave next weekend when we have some more friends in town. The other great news is Park City will be open a weekend later in April then originally planned. One of these posts I will have to update what a "usual" Saturday ski day is for all of us.
In other news, Brendan injured his back yesterday at Snowgression. It is this awesome foam pit, ramp, trampoline place in Salt Lake that the boys try to get to at least once a week. I went for a tramp session last Saturday and it is a huge workout and a lot of fun to do something so different. The only scary part is the risk for injuries can be huge if you are not careful. Sure enough Saturday Bren said he got distracted and landed a fall wrong. He could have been hurt way worst instead he is just icing his back a lot and taking it easy. We will see how long that lasts with his hockey playoffs this week and more friends in town to enjoy the hill. I will try to upload videos of Snowgression on here, its pretty cool.
My spring is going great, finished one baby sweater which turned promptly into Bjorn's smoking jacket and I am in the process of taking a second sweater class. This class involves learning seaming, which is way easier then it looks. Hard to believe I only started knitting a year ago and how far I have come. Bread baking continues and I am also trying to take some hot yoga classes and a get a ballet class in here and there. I am looking forward to going home to MN for my bestfriend's wedding in May and seeing my hockey team of nephews and family. Thats the only hard part of living so far away. Although technology is incredible enough that through Skype we were able to sing along and watch the twins at their first birthday party, pretty incredible!
I will try to update this blog some more in the next few weeks and hopefully upload some videos too. We hope all our family and friends are enjoying their spring and more sunshine!
Love
Alyssa

Knitting and Kneading

Started my new hobbies this week with my bread baking class and baby knitting sweater class. My favorite knitting store told me the best way to learn sweaters is to start with a baby sweater and then work your way up from there. You get experience with the shaping and types of stitched used. It has been going very fast with the baby sweater and I have pretty much learned how to do every type of stitch required. We'll see, usually when I knit something like my first pair of socks, hat, etc the first one always has gobs of errors then I make like three more and they each get better and better.


The bread baking class was great as well, high altitude baking isn't that much harder it is just adjustments in the amount of yeast, baking soda, powder, etc that you use. The teacher was different when you ask her about using anything else recipe wise but her own stuff she pretty much answers everything by telling you instead to use her recipes only as the answer. I will not be buying her cookbook. I made my first set of dough this weekend and made a loaf and also small buns out of it. I should have let it rise longer and it tasted good but did not rise very much, oh well not bad for a first try.
School is keeping Bren very bust this semester and on top of that he is searching for an internship. His dream internship is learning to make skis, he decided after looking at Tommy's new birthday Moment skis that he wants to learn to make hand made skis. Pretty cool stuff. Utah has a lot of ski industry type stuff so we will have to see.
Hoping spring comes fast and continues to bless us with fifty degree, sunny days on the hill.
Love
Alyssa

Resilant

Sometimes as I get older I get frustrated with my body whether it's re balancing for dance and adjustments when you change workouts. Then something will happen to remind me how thankful I am for this wonderful amazing body. I had one of those moments this weekend I just got a new snowboard and Friday I was taking it out for it's victory ride. Within five runs I had renamed my board the "go faster" board. Indeed it was faster, prettier a whole lot more slick with lots of tricks then my old beginner board. For a good two runs I thought I owned the hill, sure enough that's when the mountain decided to remind me who was in charge. I caught the switch side edge and proceeded to cartwheel down the hill landing full impact on my right hip. Ouch and ouch to what happens when you show off. I knew it was bad and managed to get down the hill to first aid. Being the insurance savvy gal I am they were not my preferred providers so I begged my lovely husband to take me to the in network park city clinic. One car ride, one wheel chair ride later I was getting my hip x ray ed. I couldn't help thinking how I would do my job for three months in a wheel chair. Thank goodness for the wonderful temple that is my body it was not broken, just a deep bone contusion and a pinched nerve. Crutches, painkillers and taking it easy, I could handle that. That's why I am so thankful to have a body that allowed me to limp into work today and know that with time I will be ok because my body is resilient.
Love
Alyssa

2011 New Year, New Hobbies!!

Brendan and I started this wonderful tradition years ago that every new years we would take up a new hobby. We figured it was a way to keep our brains working and always cool to learn new stuff. Over the years the hobbies have been everything from learning about wine, golfing, snowboarding and whatever else catches our fancy. Last year my hobby was learning to knit since there was a knitting shop down the street from our house in Michigan. I have fallen head over heels in love with knitting since. I haven't progressed to sweater yet but proudly I did accomplish my first pair of socks. Hats, scarfs and socks are currently my favorites, we'll see the more I learn the more I fall in love. So apart of my goal for 2011 is to knit a sweater, we'll see how that goes...
Snowboarding has been a hobby accompanied by a labor of love meaning that the first few times I went I needed to drink some tequila by noon to survive the afternoon. After purchasing a pair of knee pads, helmet and getting the crap kicked out of me I finally got both edges and now proudly can ride anything on the mountain. It's pretty sweet, I recently upgraded my board, boots and bindings to match my level of expertise. I think secretly Bren misses the good old days of Alyssa having to drink on the hill by mid morning to survive Mount Hood!!!
This years hobby is going to be learning how to make home made bread from scratch no bread machine involved. I have always wanted to be able to do this and this is the year I am going to learn how. I purchased a great book, have myself signed up for a high altitude bread baking class and I am crossing my fingers. Bren's hobby I think involves just surviving school, occasionally reading for pleasure and getting an internship. I also want to try and cook a recipe out of very cookbook I own. I have a guilty pleasure of purchasing cookbooks for the pretty pictures. As always, this lovely blog will document it all. If you haven't done it yourself I suggest you make the best new years resolution and pick up a new hobby, it always makes for an interesting year!
Love
Alyssa

Back to School

I just got done skiing 4 of the last 5 days with a hockey game thrown in as well and my legs are sore! But the whole time I was very aware of why we moved here and why I love it here so much. I start my second semester of my MBA program tomorrow at 9:10 AM. I have four classes tomorrow starting with Operations management, I then have Managerial accounting, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Finance. Monday and Wednesday are big days, I am excited to start and get into the middle of my work. I feel right now as if I know I am going to be hit by a truck, I can hear it and see the headlights but I'm still waiting for it to happen. I love school and I am excited for my semester to get underway. This next weekend will be fun as we have a friend coming to ski with us for the weekend. Another weekend of skiing thursday afternoon, then hockey and then skiing friday, saturday and sunday, what more can I ask for!

-Brendan

Christmas and New Years

I am home now in Utah waiting patiently for both Brendan, Tommy and Oscar to get home. We had an awesome trip back to MN and like clockwork of course Park City gets hit with a huge snowstorm the minute we leave. Tommy assured us this is a given and always happens. Oh well, time with family back in the Midwest was such a blessing and gift this Christmas.
We started the holiday at my parents house and the next morning started early by seeing my best friend Kelly's baby Zach who was only three weeks old! We continued an awesome tradition and had my Dad and Brendan join my Mom and myself for Owen and Tyde's big adventure day. Right before Christmas we take the nephews out for a day to spoil them rotten, document it all then create a book telling the story of the adventure from that day. I always feel so happy to be involved because I am not around MN much. We did a whole day at the Mall of America that was great from beginning to end. That evening Bren and I did our usual show up at Buffalo Wild Wings and invite our friends out to meet us, we had a pretty good turnout of about 16 to 20 people. It was great seeing everyone and where they are at in their lives. Time just doesn't slow down but it makes me feel happy for all of my friends events and joys.
Christmas Eve was great with my family then a late evening dessert with the Pliegos. Christmas Morning was wonderful with Brendan's family and we just enjoyed all the usual traditions. My Mother in law Kathy is wonderful and had invited my parents over for Christmas Day Dinner, my Mom and Dad came but my dad left early because he was feeling awful. It was kind of scary but probably better he went home to bed as he got the flu for the next week and my Mom Sandy got sick with a nasty cold.
The Tuesday after Christmas we went to Canada Creek Michigan to spend the New Years with Grandparents Bud and Barb. We got there just in time to be able to do lots of snowmobiling, cross country skiing and just enjoying the winter there. It rained New Years Eve day and almost all the snow melted. It was good to be with family on New Years and enjoy many of our usual traditions.
The goodbyes are always hard, I don't care how long I have lived away it just doesn't get any easier. Although, I feel blessed to have an incredible husband and life here in Utah.
Best wishes for 2011!