Gone to the Lake

We figured it was about time that we try out the new fishing poles we got for Christmas last year, so Tuesday Aaron took me to New Canyon Lake up Ephraim Canyon to break them in. We didn't think we would catch much, but we each ended up catching at least one; so it wasn't all a lost cause. However, they weren't much to brag about. We always have so much fun fishing, and the place was gorgeous to say the least. Thanks for an amazing day Aaron!

Tiny little thing isn't it?

This is about the worst picture of me fishing, but it's the only one of me with the pole so I had to prove I really can fish.

We took Aaron's dog Chief with us so that he could have a swim, he was having the time of his life and about ate both of our fish before we could even get them off the hooks.

After fishing we headed to the Mona Kona Reservoir with Marcie, Kaylan, baby Carter and Russ. We had a lot of fun wake boarding and tubing, well they had fun wake boarding, while I tubed. I'm terrified of the water and I'm not very coordinated in it so I'm taking baby steps each time we go.

Aaron is really starting to get the hang of it.

Kaylan and Aaron

I did it!

I finally did it! I graduated from the Dental Hygiene Program at Dixie State College on May 7, 2010. What a bitter-sweet feeling it is. It was a stressful last couple of months, but all the hard work has finally paid off. I took my last two clinical exams at the end of April and first of May and I PASSED!!! I am officially done. I am going to miss these girls and seeing them everyday, but I know we have built lasting friendships.

The night before graduation we had our "Pinning Ceremony" where they officially welcomed us into the hygiene profession. We had a really nice dinner and awards ceremony. I feel weird saying this, but I received the Academic Award for having the highest GPA in the Dental Hygiene Program. I felt like it was such an honor, because these girls are the cream of the crop and are all ridiculously smart and talented.

The in-laws, hubby, and my parents

Graduation day!!

Deidre, Me, Meg, and Kaitlyn

Finally the diploma, and the two best parents in the world, without their support I never would have made it this far.

Our teachers made us wear these teeth on our hats so that they could tell us apart from the rest of the college when we were walking in. So that's that I am finally a real college graduate.

Easter Fun!

School is winding down and I am so excited. I got my results for my national dental hygiene exam and I passed!!! My heart was pounding just looking at the envelope, but knowing that I passed is such a sigh of relief. Now only two more tests to go, until it's official. I am really going to miss these girls below, but we have all worked so hard and I know we are all looking forward to the real world ahead.

My family decided to celebrate Easter this weekend, although it was a week late. We have an annual Easter Picnic up on the "J" hill in Nephi every year, where we build a camp fire and roast hot dogs and eat tons of great food. I look forward to this tradition and I am so glad we were still able to fit it in. Sometimes I wish I was still a little kid so I could crawl around in the trees and dirt searching for prizes and Easter eggs. Aaron went camping with his dad so he was unable to make it this year, but it was so fun to be with my family and see everyone who I haven't seen in months.

My dad and I at the picnic

Life!

I'm officially the worst blogger ever. It has been forever since I have even uploaded a picture. Life has been super busy and I feel like all I do is school stuff, which most of the time is definately not blog worthy. So for all of you, who are probably thinking we fell off the face of the earth, we are still here. I am in my last semester of school and it is keeping me extremely busy. I have been studying non-stop for my National Dental Hygiene Board test which is next friday. The test lasts about eight hours and will definately be challenging, so everyone wish me luck. After next Friday, I will still have two more tests to take before I am officially a Registered Dental Hygienist, so until May life might be a little crazy. Aaron has been so supportive and such a great study buddy. I always want to slack off on studying, but he is always pushing me to do my best.

As for Aaron, he used to work nights at the prison, but he finally got transferred to the day shift. We are so excited, this is such a great oppurtunity for Aaron. Plus, not to brag, Aaron recieved an award at work. The award he recieved at work was the "PRIDE" award, and there are only a few people who get it. His captain had a lot of good things to say about him and I am really proud of him. He is such a hard worker and does so much to spoil me.

Valentine's day was really fun this year. Aaron took me to dinner and a movie; and then surprised me with a day at the spa, a gift card to Buckle, and a nice new hair dryer. Ha, he was sick of me complaining about my old one for so long. I decided to get Aaron a gun case to go on the back of our Rhino and a new binocular case. My favorite gift from Aaron was his homemade "Parrymark" card. Aaron is so adorable and surprises me in so many ways. Instead of buying a card, he decided to create his own "Hallmark card." The card was so sweet and the "Parrymark" sign on the back of the card made me laugh. He comes up with the funniest things, we seriously laugh everyday. I don't know what I would do without him. He makes me feel so special, I just love him so much.

Last weekend we were able to take a break and go to the NASCAR race in Las Vegas. This was my second year going, and I was really looking forward to it. Everyone thinks that it is redneck to go to the race, but until you go you can't judge it. I'll admit, there are definately some interesting people, but it is a blast. The race track is huge and the cars are so loud and go so fast. We were only like five rows from the track. Last year when I went, Aaron told me I had to choose a driver to cheer for and then stick with him; so why not choose the best one right. So ever since last year I have been cheering for Jimmie Johnson, and the best part about it was that he actually won the race this year so it made it really exciting. Aaron cheers for Dale Earnhart Junior, and lets just say, he's no Jimmie. I was really glad we were able to go with Aaron's family to the race. So that pretty much sums up what has been going on in our lives. Hopefully, I'll be better at posting and taking pictures from here on out. Here are a few pictures from the race.

The track before the race

Some random coke motorcycle

This place gets packed, they said more people were at this race than were at the super bowl.

The Sprint Cup trophy


Me and Jimmie's car!

Happy New Year!

Aaron is a die hard Jazz fan, even when they struggle at times, so my friend Meghann and I had decided to surprise our boys with Jazz tickets for Christmas. Wednesday night they played the Memphis Grizzlies. Before the game we met up with Meg and Landon and had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. The game was really fun, the Jazz actually played well for once and ended up killing the grizzlies. Aaron and I used to always go to the Jazz games, but with school and work it has been harder to get away. We were so glad that Meg and Landon let us tag along.

School starts again on Monday, so it is back to the real world. I'm going to miss being home with family and friends. One more semester and I will finally be done. It is such a crazy feeling to realize that everything I've worked for will finally pay off. School has definitely been challenging, but it will be very rewarding when it is all said and done. Thanks for all of your support and friendship and best wishes in this upcoming year!

Merry Christmas!

Sorry everyone, I've been slacking. School and finals kept me busy and pretty much took over my life there for awhile. However, I have a break from school for a few weeks and I am thoroughly enjoying being home with my family and with Aaron. Christmas was so fun this year! Aaron actually had the day off. We were able to spend Christmas morning with my family and then we spent the afternoon with his family in Fillmore and Ephraim. We were definitely spoiled this year by our families, we got a lot of neat stuff. It was no surprise that Aaron would spoil me as well, he got me a ton of stuff. He is so funny. A few weeks before Christmas we went shopping so that he could get a few ideas of what to buy. I tried on a few pairs of boots and told him that I wanted him to pick out the final pair. Well Christmas morning I get a couple of pairs of different boots and I was a bit confused. Aaron said that he couldn't decide so he just decided to let me have both. I am a pretty lucky girl, any girl wouldn't mind having extra shoes. He also followed all of my post-it hints that I left laying around the house of what I wanted this year. Aaron is so good to me and I probably don't deserve it. He got me way too much for Christmas. Opening presents was really fun. Watching my nephews was so funny. After the famous pumpkin waffle breakfast at my parent's we were able to go to Fillmore to eat dinner with Aaron's Mom's family. We pretty much had three Christmas' because after that we had another Christmas at Aaron's parent's house. I was so glad that we were able to spend Christmas with both of our families, I guess that's the luxury of them living so close. I didn't get too many pictures of Christmas this year, so sorry this is all you get. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning!

Christmas morning with Carter, his first Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve at the annual Parry family Christmas party. It is always so fun when everyone can get together. I haven't seen half his family in months. Every year they exchange white elephant gifts and as you can see below Aaron left with a pretty fancy one. I think Mexico fits him! After the Parry party, I was able to spend the rest of the night with my family, playing games and opening Christmas Eve pajamas. My whole family was down at my parent's and it was so fun to see my nephews get so excited about Santa Clause coming.

Us and Aaron's grandma Joyce. She doesn't look too happy, but she is the sweetest lady.

I was so excited to get done with my finals so that I could come home and actually make it to one of Aaron's basketball games. Aaron plays basketball in a league in Mt. Pleasant. He hasn't been able to make it to all of the games because of work and coming to see me in Cedar City, but I was excited when I was actually able to make it to a game. Aaron is so good at basketball and I know he hates when he misses the games. It's so funny to watch the games sometimes, because the men get so physical and talk so much trash. I guess it keeps them young!

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year. Unfortunately Aaron had to work that night, but we were at least able to spend a few hours at my parent's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I am so thankful I have a husband who works as hard as he does. I get frustrated when he has to work holidays, but I know he is just doing all that he can to spoil me. Thanks for everything Aaron! We are truly blessed for all that we have.

I'm a little behind, but my sister Marcie finally had her handsome baby boy. Carter Jackson Keen was welcomed into our family on November 10, 2009. We couldn't be more excited. Aaron was hoping they would name him Aaron Junior, but apparently they didn't take his advice. He is the most adorable thing. My other three nephews all tease me and let me know that Marcie is their favorite aunt, so I'm hoping I at least have a shot at being Carter's favorite. I guess we'll see how it goes. We are so happy for Marcie and Kaylon!

Halloween

Aaron and I decided to stay in Cedar City for Halloween weekend. Meghann and Marisa threw a Halloween party in St. George at their apartment so we decided to make an appearance. We didn't figure out what we were going to dress up as until the day of. We were pretty creative, if I do say so myself. We decided to go as Baked Potatoes. We went to Walmart hoping to buy a costume, but didn't want to spend a lot of money on something we probably would never use again, so our creative efforts led us to baked potatoes. It was really fun getting in the spirit of Halloween and getting dressed up. It took us forever to wrap ourselves with tin-foil and we attempted to stuff our tummy's with stuffing to look like fat potatoes. By the time we got to St. George most of it had ripped, so we spent a lot of time in the parking lot patching things up. However, their apartment was on the third floor and walking up three flights of stairs didn't help the situation out too much. We finally gave up at that point, got some pictures and ripped the costumes off. Needless to say, we were baking, tin-foil really cooks you. The party was really fun. They had Halloween bingo, a donut eating game, and a pinata. It's crazy to think Halloween pretty much came and went. This year is flying by so fast.

The hygiene girls!

Everyone!

The pinata, that I actually happened to break.

Friday we were able to go to Thriller with Meghann and Landon. I had never seen it so I was really excited. I was a little nervous about Aaron liking it, but he seemed to have fun. Before heading out to Tuacahn we went to dinner at Brick Oven for my friend Marisa's birthday. She has become such a good friend and I am so glad she let us spend her special day with her. Tuacahn greeted us with many scary zombies. Although I know they are not real, it still freaked me out when they were literally inches from my face. The particular zombie girl below brushed noses with Aaron in fact. He said she was so close he could have kissed her. I guess that they can't help it when they see an attractive man in the audience. I didn't really know what to expect going into thriller, but it turned out to be really fun and I am so glad we went.

The zombie who tried to kiss my husband.

Meg and Me

Landon and Meghann


Landon, Lorena Bobbitt, and Aaron
This Lady cracked me up, I thought she was the best part of the show. I had no idea who she even was until Thriller. After the show she came up to Aaron and kept squishing his cheeks, I had to get a picture. As we were walking away, she told me to "go forth and conquer, if you know what I mean." She was hilarious.