Saturday, January 9, 2010

Holidays are over, bring on the New Year.

Izzy's Christmas Hankie
Steph and I showing off our Chip and Dale Christmas gifts!!


Opening presents, I'm really excited about my socks. Ben on the other hand is really excited to open his next gift.

Ashley and I at Dicks in Vegas



Ben and I getting ready for a night on the town.

Ben watching the fountain show

First day of the season!!


So..it has been a while. Christmas has come and gone, New Year's, over, already in the 2010 and so much has happened.
Ben and I stayed in SLC for Christmas again this year. Last year was a bust as we had to work the day after Christmas, but this year, we hosted our first Christmas. My friend Jason and his girlfriend Steph were able to come down on Christmas eve and stay the weekend with us as Jason had a hockey game here in SLC on December 26. They came early on the 24th, and I was able to get the 24th off the minute so we all went up to Brighton resort to ski and snowboard. Poor Ben had to stay in town and work, but he was off early and made it home in time to help with the Christmas eve meal we made. I had started a ham and meatballs that morning so when we all got back to the house, Ben made stuffing, Jason and Steph made the green bean casserole and we also had some more friends, Lance and Stephanie, that came over and brought the desserts and mash potatoes! I can not believe how great everything turned out and I think that everyone had a great Christmas Eve meal. We had planned to hit the resorts again early on Christmas morning so of course we had to get our gift opening out of the way on Christmas Eve. It was so much fun enjoying the holiday with some close friends.
Jason, Steph, Ben and I got up early on Christmas, ate some breakfast and headed up to Snowbird. We got up there so early and were surprised that it wasn't crazy. I decided to ski with Steph and we had so much fun learning the sticks while Ben and Jason hit up the steep hills.
We were all so beat by the time Saturday came around, we just hung out, went out for lunch and then went to the Steelhead/Grizzly hockey game. Steelheads weren't able to out skate the Grizzly's but it was a fun game and am so glad that I was able to spend time with Jason and Steph.
Ben and I had another short week of work and then it was off to Vegas to spend the New Year with some friends! It took a while to talk Ben into going to Vegas for the weekend, but I think that it paid off in the end because Ben had an absolute blast! I think that we will be going back there a couple times in the next year. We hopped on a plane after work on NYE and went o Vegas to visit some friends. We had a great NYE at our friends, Ashley and Mike's at their house in Vegas. We played some games, had some good food and enjoyed their jacuzzi a few time! The rest of the weekend we spent on the strip. We did some shopping, ate some good food and got some gambling in as well:) Ben learned how to play Craps.
Some side notes, I got a new camera and am really excited to start using more to capture some great shots. Ben and I also decided that our New Year resolution is sticking to a budget and save some money. We do eventually want to buy a house and cutting back on some of the things that we do/buy/use will completely help us out. I just bought a new book, Bitches on a Budget to read and give me some ideas on where to start. I just found the blog from the writer, Rosalyn Hoffman and have attached it to my blog. Check it out it has some amazing tips in it.
Somethings we are looking forward to in 2010:
-Weddings...weddings...weddings, so excited to attend our friends weddings this year.
-saving up for a HONEYMOON!!
-Learning how to use my new camera