Christmas in February!

So, I realize this post is a wee bit delayed, but I figured better late than never. Just wanted to share all the details of Christmas break along w/some pics. After Am and I flew home, we woke up early the next morning (Christmas Eve) and flew home. We made it just in time for our family Christmas Eve dinner. Because of our large numbers, we've moved past the dining room to the cultural hall at the ward. It ended up being so fun because the kids had plenty of room to run around and play and everyone could squeeze into the kitchen to help out. We had a yummy dinner followed by fun games, our annual nativity play including a cameo by my dad as the donkey :) and the highlight of the night: a visit from Santa.

It was so fun being home!! I had such a great time spending time with friends, family and relaxing. Plus, such a bonus to be home for Chaser's farewell.

southeast asia or bust......

so, i'm a tad late in updating oh the last month or 2, but here goes....

my sister amber is in her 1st year of grad. school at the "U", getting her master's in education. needless to say, for the first time in forever, she had a nice long break over winter, which happily coincided w/mine and we decided to capitalize on it and take a little vacation. it's pretty funny how easily we came to the decision of where to go and both decided on thailand, vietnam and cambodia. here's a quick re-cap of our vacation. they were all such amazing, beautiful, cheap, fun places!! i would easily go back for more.

bangkok, thailand: 2 nts.
got dropped off at 2 a.m. in the wrong sketchy alley way where are hotel was supposed to be located, but no fret there were plenty of them to go around. we ended up walking around a bit and found our 1/4 of a star hotel (which they claim was 3 stars ha!). we could not stop laughing when we saw the 3 beds pushed together, shower w/no curtain over the toilet, etc... we ended up meeting an awesome family from montana w/1 son and joined up w/them to explore the city: touring the temples, visiting the largest reclining buddha, going on a river cruise, eating some of the yummy food and experiencing one of many massages (at $6/hr., "no massage" is not an option). overall, we both thought bangkok was nice and cool how oriented it was to the water, but another big city and probably our least favorite of the trip.

chiang mai, thailand: 2 nts.
hopped on a flight to chiang mai and got checked into our hotel. already such a huge improvement from our last hotel, it's not even funny. it does make me laugh looking back on our pics how we totally derived inspiration from our wardrobe from the "amazing race": hence the running pants w/t shirts and sweatshirts in multiple shots :) we went on an amazing tour that took us up into the jungles to see a unique tribe of thai people, on an elephant ride, a hike up a beautiful waterfall and lastly to go on a ride down the river on a long bamboo raft. it was a small, really fun group on our tour that day, a mom and her son from england and 2 couples from the netherlands, plus me and am. after getting back and getting the obligatory massage :), we hit up the night bazaar market. you would've thought we had just heard we no longer need to attend another single's activity, it was the happiest feeling ever being surrounded by such bargains :) my only regret now is not getting more. i only wish i had a video of amber offering the salespeople such ridiculously low prices that they would just look at us in disgust, but it did score me a $2 fake pair of ray bans.

siem reap, cambodia: 2 nts.
hands down this place was the highlight of our whole trip. everything about it was amazing: scenery, people, adventure. we took a tuk tuk (a little carriage hooked to a scooter) around the town to scope things out and to hit up shopping at the market at night. the next day we went on a quad tour: (an aussie couple started these 4 wheeler tours through the rice paddies and decided to take the earnings and open up an orphanage in the area). after going through the fields and passing through small little villages, we ended up at the orphanage. wow! such a lesson to me about the resilience of little kids. it broke my heart to see how little they had, but to see how proud they were of their school, their dorm area, the garden they were growing, etc... and such smart kids, they were learning japanese, english and cambodian. it really had an impact on us. here's their website if you want to check it out: http://cambodianorphanage.org/
after that we hopped on another tuk tuk to angkor wat: the largest religious monument in the world. in a word amazing! so extensive and so much detail, it's so neat to think of everything that's been preserved.

ho chi minh city, vietnam: 2 nts.
and welcome to the land of motor scooters. oh my gosh! such a shocker, they were everywhere, we had never seen anything like it. and it was kind of funny b/c everyone drives w/the face masks on and it's almost like those and their helmets are their way of expressing their fashion sense, there's every style under the sun. am and i were joking that now one of the biggest accomplishments in our lives is being able to cross the street in vietnam. people do not stop or even slow down. we would just link arms, say a prayer and try to find a group of natives to trail. it was like playing a game of human frogger :) we took a tour in vietnam of this beautiful temple about 1 1/2 hours outside the city then went to the cu chi tunnels, extensive tunnels used during the vietnam war. very cool, but very claustrophobic. we ended the day by hotel hopping: happening in to fancy hotels around the city to check out their amenities :)

highlights of the trip:
1) being together-it was such a bonus being able to travel w/amber, b/c we just get each other, we have similar tastes in things/activities and it was just so easy and fun.
2) all of the amazing people we met on this trip: our friends from montana, peruvian cousins, an aussie couple and their daughter, the 2 couples from the netherlands and our friend and her son from england. it is so fascinating to hear what draws people to places and just to hear their backgrounds.
3)surprisingly, i know, the food! i wouldn't say am and i are the most adventurous eaters, but oh my gosh, the food was sooo good! especially in vietnam and so incredibly cheap.
4)4 wheeling through the rice fields and seeing the orphanage in cambodia
5)walking around downtown ho chi minh, with the whole city decorated for christmas

35 and loving it so far.....

so, i have to admit, i did approach this birthday with a little hesitation. hmmm....maybe part of it was i got a little email from my friend saying hey, it's almost your ama birthday, so i'm thinking almost middle aged? and she laughed and was like no, it's an ob gyn term: advanced maternal age! o.k., i think that was even worse. but then i started thinking, you know what, so some things in my life have not turned out within the timeline i would've expected, it has still been a great life and i feel so lucky to have the amazing friends and family and great opportunities i've had. my sister and i have this long running joke....this is your year!! but i really feel like it is, no matter what comes my way. it was actually more like a birthday week instead of day full of lots of surprises. i had lunches and dinners w/friends, some cute little surprises from the kids i work with, lots of fun calls/cards/texts from my family, a surprise cake from my young women and the other leaders and the best surprise was my mom and dad flying out for the day to be here w/me on my birthday. i know i lucked out in the parent dept. and feel so lucky they're mine. who else would be willing to fly in at 1:00, be here a few hours and then fly right back out at 7?

Happy Halloween!!

I don't know what it is, but I love Halloween!! Maybe it's all the fun memories of getting dressed up, going out trick or treating and just spending time with family and friends, but I've always thought it was such a fun holiday. Every year I say I'm not going to fall into the same pattern, but always do! I wait until the last minute to figure out what I'm going to dress as and then it not only costs more, but things are usually picked over. This year I lucked out thanks to my generous friends who lent me part of their old costumes and recycling an old costume from last year.

I have to dress up for school, it's just so fun to see the kids reactions, they love it! So, for our Halloween parade at school I was a girl scout. My friends and I also ran in a little 5-k on Halloween morning that was up at this really cute pumpkin patch in Valencia. It was hilarious, they had people jumping out of corn stalks scaring us, etc...

Then, Halloween night our stake had a big singles Halloween dance party. Yeah, let me just say, if you're looking to meet someone, my suggestion is that a Halloween party is probably not the best place for that. I was dancing w/this one guy who was dressed as a nerd w/really bad fake teeth and all and I know it's shallow, but just could not get over it. Anyway, the party was really fun and it was so fun to see how creative some people were with their costumes.

Hard to Believe....

This is just crazy, how is it possible that this little boy is ready to go on a mission. It's official, my oldest nephew Chase (Jen's son) just got his mission call and is going to.... Neuquen, Argentina!!! I'm so proud of him and excited for the amazing experience he's going to have. I was in 10th grade when Chaser was born and as my friends all know I was so excited to be an aunt for the 1st time (and have to say equally as excited and proud of the other 22!!) Anyway, I was even more excited for Chaser knowing that he was going to the mission that was just a hop, skip and a jump over the Andes from mine and for knowing the Pulley Spanish tradition lives on, except for Mitch w/his Italian, but close enough right? :)

Congrats Chaser!! We are all so happy and proud of you!

rise and shout the cougars are out!!!

well, fall is officially here and what better way to ring it in than with an amazing byu football win. the cougars beat #3 ranked Oklahoma 14 to 13!!! seriously, what a great game!! now, i just pray they keep up with their momentum. as a bonus, mindy and brando were out here for a visit this weekend, so we had so much fun watching it together and loudly rooting for byu, which i'm sure was a surprise to my all things ucla crazy neighbors. like, what other teams exist?

**for those of you savvy observants, yes this pic was staged (you can see the player is actually wearing an lsu helmet), but just couldn't find it in me to run and get my camera in the moment.

One of my top 5 summers!!

Crazy how fast time flies, and why oh why is it always Summer that flies by the fastest? What an amazingly fun, relaxing, family and friend filled, adventure filled, happy summer it's been!

My friend Tonnette and I went on an amazing trip to the Baltics and let me just say, I think I have some new favorite travel spots. Everywhere we went was such a great mix of natural beauty and amazing architecture. Speaking of beauty, that's it, hands down Denmark wins for having the most beautiful people, I swear there was not one ugly guy or girl to be found, and Amsterdam was a very close runner up. Of all our stops, I definitely loved Amsterdam, Stockholm and Tallinn, Estonia the best.

A few of the highlights of the trip were:

Going to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam: so neat to match the image in my mind w/reality

Going on a canal tour of the city in Amsterdam

Watching the changing of the Royal Guard in Stockholm

The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg: my favorite art museum yet

Sitting inside the Rock Church in Helsinki and listening to the live piano concert

Exploring beautiful Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen

****After our trip, I headed home to Salt Lake to spend time w/my fam for a couple of weeks. It was a great couple of weeks seeing family and friends and we were able to pack in so many fun different things.

Of course, a trip home would never be complete w/out Girl's nights w/my Mom and sisters. Can I just say how much I love and appreciate them. Seriously, always looking out for me. I can always count on my Mom and sisters to be on the lookout for any potential "dateable" guys, notice the key word.

So my sister Lisa and I went out to lunch one day and turns out there's this guy w/his brother and dad behind us in line. I was thinking to myself "he's really cute", then I turned the corner and Li nodded in his direction to say how cute he was too. So, we go and sit down, Li had left to go get some straws and runs back and says "he's single, no ring!", then she was like, "that's it, I have to get his number for you or else I'll regret it". So, I'm thinking no way, so embarrassing! but then I was thinking, if I left the restaurant and then she did it, what do I have to lose? We proceed to leave the restaurant and Li goes back to talk to the guy. I'm waiting and waiting outside, when all of a sudden she comes out and says "he's married". annoying! why don't some guys wear their rings? but then she starts telling me how she went up to him saying that I thought he looked familiar and asked where he went to high school, Wyoming! (way off). then she asked if he was married? and he said "yes", so she came back w/Oh too bad b/c my sister thought you were handsome and I was going to give you her number. But the best part is Li said, you know what it's a good thing, b/c as I was walking closer to him, I noticed that he wasn't as cute close up and he had bad teeth. Gotta love sisters!! On a positive note, my sister Jen is now 2 for 2 for good blind dates, no more he's LDS, you're LDS. :)