December 2012

Holy Cow! December is pretty much almost over and I have no clue as to where it went. It was a good month just very busy for both Brendan and I. At least we both love our jobs and if there is extra work to be done we are still grateful for employment. Weekends have been busy between our usual mountain activities, work parties and shoveling snow. We volunteered this month for work for Toys for Tots, it was pretty incredible. You never realize how many families an organization like that serves until you see the desperate need for toys and a huge warehouse filled for just two counties. It was a good experience for us both. Brendan also had a work party this month in downtown Salt Lake City that was a lot of fun. He has some great co workers and we both had a good time. I finally took my early Christmas gift of back country snowboarding out for a spin this past weekend. We went to Mill D in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a fantastic work out, I just need to figure out the whole carving in powder on my snowboard bit. I have been too spoiled on groomed runs in Park City the last few years. I'm sure I will get the hang of it but I might need to pull out the old school learning flask again. Brendan and I both hope all of our family and friends have a wonderful Holiday and great 2013!

Love,

Alyssa and Brendan

November 2012

They always say as you get older time goes faster, I never believed it when I was little but as I blink it feels like it was just June and we were still in Park City. Love, love, love our new house and all of the blessings we have in our lives. I am always surprised at how much Utah has been such a wonderful fit for us. I would have never expected to be as happy and surrounded by an amazing landscape and good people here! Enough of the cheesy stuff but we really have it good, and this month I feel like taking a moment to be grateful is okay. I miss Minnesota for the family and friends we have there but Utah truly has become our home. We have been lucky enough to have family here like Brendan's brother Tommy and his girlfriend Brandy and his cousin Charlie. We also have friends here that are like family and have also helped immensely make us not homesick. Facetiming on the iphone with my Mom and emails/calls with my other Mom Kathy also help. Brendan and I are also lucky that the people we spend quite a few hours a week with are also incredible, having great co workers is also something I know we are both grateful for!
Thanksgiving this year we continued the third year of out traditional turkey day 5k and feasting at the Mays. It was good as always and was nice that the weather was mild enough this year to allow for some hot tubbing and yard games as well. As November comes to a close I find myself thinking about this past fall and it has been good. Now just bring on the snow so we can start some real winter here!
Love,
Alyssa and Brendan

P.S I have also included a picture of my lovely nephews Eli and Westin in this post, I love this photo Jack took of my little boys!

Lexis Baby Shower

November has gone by way too quickly! It has been good just busy. One of the first weekends in November myself and my friend Sara hosted a baby shower for our really good friend Lexi. She is due with baby boy Mayhem in February. So far we have had a pretty mild fall and beginning of winter. Baby May decided that his shower should begin with some mayhem. What was suppose to be only a few inches of snow turned into a full on blizzard in Utah starting the friday prior to Lexi's baby shower. Lucky enough for us the weather semi cleared up for the actual shower brunch on Saturday early afternoon but their were some moments of worrying! I had no choice but to bust into the champagne and mimosas early, right? All in all it was a great shower with good friends and the sun even peeked out for a little. Can't wait for this little boy to join all of us in February, adding another "nephew" to the hockey roster!

Halloween 2012

I love Halloween! When I was a little I would decide on my costume in July or August. I was usually a witch... for almost five years in a row (my mom had to stage an intervention). I asked Brendan what he liked to be and he said he always liked to be a football player but never really put much thought into his costume. We had a great Halloween weekend this year. On Saturday I went to a witches brew at my friend Kelly's house. It was so much fun, yummy food and really cute decorations. Saturday night we had friends over for a costume game night. I really do believe dressing up and yahtzee should always go hand in hand. We carved pumpkins last night, I am great at scrapping the pumpkins out and baking the seeds. Brendan is the expert carver, each year he seems to find a new design to try and do. Try to guess which pumpkin I did? Can't wait to pass out candy tomorrow night and see how many trick or treaters we get at the new house!

Love,
Alyssa and Brendan

Pictures from October

High Tea with Barb and Kathy at the Grand America

Brendan and Bud just enjoying the porch

Halloween 2012, Flapper and Rockstar

Lexi, Sara and I

Now hes blonde again!

Bring on the Snow!

We are ready for winter, got me all set up with my back country gear! I have been stressed out this fall because Brendan and I decided not to get season passes and instead get myself equipped to enjoy back country skiing. As the weather has slowly changed I started feeling panic about all the equipment and what would happen if I miss out this winter. We have been watching online sales and this weekend a second hand ski shop had a ski swap and I was able to pretty much pick up most of my gear for a ridiculous deal. All I have left to get is an avalanche beacon. I'm so excited, it can snow tomorrow!!
We have been good, September ended with family in town. We had a lot of fun having everyone stay with us and see our new house. We felt really lucky because Brendan's grandparents also made it into town. We had so many good meals, nice weather and just enjoying the company. Next time we will all be together will be in the Florida Keys this winter, should be a good time.
As the days get shorter and the weather changes Bren and I have been trying to enjoy what is left of mountain biking season before the weather changes. We found some great rides that leave from our house, which is pretty neat. We have also enjoyed some yardwork, planting a new tree and getting the house/yard prepped up for winter. Next up is Halloween, should be fun having trick or treaters this year!

Love
Alyssa and Brendan

September 2012

I love fall, its my favorite season. I know a lot of people don't enjoy it as much because it means winter is on it's way but winter means snow and Christmas, Love it!!! My good old dodge stratus hit 203,000 miles this week and has been like a cat with nine lives. Brendan and I have known for awhile that we would need to get me a new car before this winter, we finally did it and bought a new car. We got a good deal on a Mazda CX5, it is a small SUV with great gas mileage. Since we have a 10% mountain grade to get to our house a four wheel drive was a requirement, with how much driving I do for my job good gas mileage was also high up on the list. We looked at a few different cars but I really liked the Mazda because I did not feel like I was driving a boat. I love it, it's nice having a reliable, safe car.

We are really excited because next weekend Brendan's Mom, Aunt and Grandparents all come to town.  We are so excited to show them our house and just enjoy their company. This weekend should be great, delicious dinner in the crock pot and some gardening in store! Love being a home owner!!

Love
Alyssa and Brendan

Our Third Anniversary

We had a really great 3rd Anniversary by celebrating at the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. It is a five star hotel and absolutely incredible! When we arrived they sent up chocolate covered strawberries and sparkling water. We went down to the lobby and had drinks before dinner and walked around the grounds. We had dinner at the Garden Cafe in the hotel. It was really good food and we brought our own bottle of wine which was also great. They actually gave us our dessert for free and did not charge us a corkage fee. It was all about the details because they also gave me a gorgeous rose after dinner as well. After dinner we got after cocktails at their Gibson girl lounge and some macaroons from their treat bakery. It is an incredible place to stay that I would recommend to anyone visiting Utah or who wants a staycation here!

Love,

Brendan and Alyssa

Brendan's 30th Birthday

August has gone by so fast, its been a great month. I am looking forward to fall, I love fall! Brendan turned 30 earlier this month so we threw him a great birthday party to celebrate. The actual day of we went up to sushi in Park City with the Mays, Tommy, Brandy and Charlie. Then the following weekend we had the party at our new place. My lovely cousin Dawne also came to town and got in on the festivities. We had such a good time, here are some pictures:

Pictures of the New House!

So after multiple attempts to upload the video I have resorted to pictures instead, enjoy!

View from front porch at night, the city

View from upstairs looking down on front door

landing in between, you can also see the city from here at night

front sitting room

view from front door

family room connects to dining area and kitchen

dining and kitchen area

main floor bathroom

view from back deck looking towards front door

kitchen

view from back deck

front porch

my flower garden

laundry room

landing to the basement

basement movie and game room area

downstairs guest room

upstairs Brendans office

master bedroom

master bathroom and walk in closet

guest room upstairs

Alyssa's office

upstairs bathroom

Dog days of August

I have been trying to upload a video tour I did of the new house onto the blog and I have been having some technical difficulties. Sorry  I Will hopefully get it going. It has been hot here but feels nice at night, the house is awesome. Most of the big projects are done now moving into what next. I think we might tackle the deck, remove, re stain it all over Labor day.
Brendan has a big week this week he turns 30 years old! We are having a party for him on Saturday night, should be a great time! Its hard to believe that our three year wedding anniversary is coming up the following week. Love August and all the birthdays, celebrations and getting into fall mode.
Good weekend for us both slept in yesterday did a 6.5 mile ride with the Mays down potato hill to Corner Canyon. We got some BBQ back at the house and then mojitos by the pool.
Today I went and saw Wicked with Lexi and Sara in downtown SLC. The show was amazing and really good. Brendan, Andy and Tommy rode crest trail and had a good time.  More to come.

Love,

The Whites

New house, MN, Fire and Fireworks!

It has been a while since I have updated our blog. Wow, have we been busy! So we are officially in the new house and are loving it. It has been a whirlwind last month, the weekend prior to moving we went home for my Grandma B's 100th Birthday. How cool to go to a great party and see family and celebrate? When my grandma turned 90 I promised her that when she turned 100 my cousin Dawne, myself and Grandma would were sparkly red dresses. Well the closer to 100 she got I panicked and instead knit all three of us red sparkly flapper hats. They turned out fantastic and the trip home to MN was great. I also got to meet my best friend Al's little boy Chase. Enjoy the pictures below!

With the help of friends and family we got everything moved and unpacked. The video tour will hopefully be next blog post, just have a few more finishing touches. The day before the 4th of July we had a fire scare in our neighborhood. It has been really dry in the West this year and suddenly Tuesday afternoon it looked like a bomb went off behind our house. There was a fire 7 miles from us and we were told to get our to go bag ready. It was pretty scary and I hope the closest we ever get to experiencing that. All is safe and good now but a lesson in how you really decide what would you bring if you had to evacuate. On top of everything else we also thought my good old 197,000 mile dodge stratus kicked the bucket on us so we were down to one car. Lucky for me my awesome husband was able to troubleshoot the problem and get the car going again. Won't be long before I need a new car though.

We had a great fourth and had some friends over for pool time, crab legs, drinks and hot dogs. It was so nice to just sit back and enjoy our house and good company. My Mom and Dad come to town next weekend and we are looking forward to showing them the house and just spending time together.

Love,
Alyssa and Brendan