ski day!

this christmas season felt a little bit different than most others.  in all our 6 years of marriage, i have done a pretty decent job getting john a few good presents.  (like the banjitar two years ago... that was pretty good.)  

but this year... i worked SO HARD to get john and NES classic.  i woke up 6(?)ish times bright and early and went to the stores hoping that the line wouldn't be too long and i could hopefully snag one... but to no avail.  so under the tree was a board game, (which is an awesome board game, albeit creepy, if you're in the market ;) and an envelope that said, "let's go skiing!"  FAIL. i know.  

in my defense, john's birthday is only five days before christmas, and he got band of horses tickets for his birthday.  aka. WIN.

so, despite my lack of being prepared christmas morning and having an awesome gift for john to open, we had an amazing day of skiing.  it has more or less confirmed my suspicions that EVENTS make way better presents than THINGS.  

a dodgers game.

if you had asked me before today if i liked baseball, the answer would have been decidedly "no".  but after last night's dodgers game, i realized that baseball can be really fun, if you're watching the pros, and the atmosphere is exciting.  i guess those bees games growing up in utah just didn't do baseball justice.  

john got free tickets to a dodgers playoff game, (AT&T entertainment group perks) so we scrambled for a babysitter, and made it by the second inning.  we got the most delicious hot dogs, and shouted and cheered, even though i didn't care who won.  hey baseball, maybe you're not so bad after all.

shabu shabu date night!

last week... for once, we got to go out on a nice date and it was the best.  we got shabu shabu.  look how delicious and beautiful those veggies and noodles look!

and i am so lucky to have this handsome, 6-ft-4 redhead to cling to for warmth in a cold movie theater.  we saw the magnificent seven.  heart-breakingly good.  

bbq bust

date night this weekend consisted of mediocre "southern bbq" {we are bbq snobs though of course...} and a looong wait.  i found a good way of entertaining the toddler, and getting that picture of john and cora in front of that cool window made it worth it ;)

when dates are too good to be true.

i don't know how i did it, but i am so lucky i convinced john to marry me.  he took me out on a hot date for our anniversary last weekend, and i found myself feeling so relaxed and happy, and laughing the entire evening.  he is my favorite human.  

we saw finding neverland on broadway and all-around did the tourist-y things.  it was the best!  we grabbed a lamb gyros on the way to the theater and were in heaven.  john coined the phrase, "greek taco bell" and i think that sums it up pretty nicely.

the show was absolutely stunning.  we both loved it and have been singing the songs ever since!

john harman, i love you so much.

a special thank you to r+j, for watching our girls and making such a fun night possible for us!  

ice sculptures

we went and saw the ice sculptures at the gaylord texan this weekend.  first of all, can we talk about what a terrible name gaylord is?  because really, i feel silly saying it.  but anyway...

the ice sculptures were amazing!  they are carved by chinese ice sculpture artists and the exhibit is kept at 9 degrees to keep the ice perfectly frozen.  i showed hazel frosty the snowman right before we got there, so she was all prepared to see him up-close in ice form.  none of the pictures turned out amazing, mostly because i recently traded in my happy, photogenic baby hazel for a grumpier toddler model.  i'm still trying to decide if i'm going to stick with this one or if another trade is in order...

also, hazel was not happy to be in that puffy parka.  but i think she prefered it to freezing.

hazel meets frosty in ice-form! really it was amazing.

there was a huge ice slide.  and i couldn't go down it with hazel, so naturally i just laid her on her back and pushed her down.  she didn't like it very much....

at the end there was a beautiful nativity. hazel especially liked pointing out the animals to me.

the texas state fair.

i am newly obsessed with the freddy's corny dog from the texas state fair.  since having one a few weeks ago, it has taken tremendous willpower not to drive downtown, pay $10 for parking, $8 for the entrance fee and $4 for another corndog.  that's a $22 corn dog, if you think about it so, i resisted.  maybe i can figure out how to make one at home that is equally as good because those darn pregnancy cravings really never go away.... and even hazel gave the corny dog the stamp of approval!

here we are at the fair, with our best friends, phil, briana, and henry.  i just love them!

another highlight was the petting zoo.  hazel is just obsessed with animals.  and she knows all the names.  also, she learned what an ostrich was when we went to the ostrich races.  did you know you have to weigh less than 130 pounds to ride an ostrich?  that counts me out!

we didn't have time for the ferris wheel, which was sad.  but we enjoyed avocado fries, rainbow pops, fried siracha balls, fried pumpkin pie, and lots of other goodies!  can't wait to go back next year!

pho.

the three of us tried a new pho noodle house last week.  although i we didn't like it as much as our orem pho place, it was still delicious.  hazel even had a few bites!  i love little spontaneous dates.  

that one time we went to chinatown.

oh, how i love the weekend.  ours was wonderful.  it's so nice to get out of the house on weekends, because usually i am confined to our little apartment and anything within a square mile of it.  and you can only do so much walking around in 90 degree weather with humidity to match it, ya know?

on saturday john took hazel and i to chinatown!  at least, that's what we're calling it.  we found it quite by accident one day when we had nothing to do but i was desperate to go on a drive/walk in new territory.  so i typed "mall" into my phone map and it came up as one of the options.  all i can say is, hallelujah!  there are too few authentic and yummy chinese food places in the world.

this place is legit.  john and i had a meal just like what we would have had over a year ago in taiwan/china.  {ie. not panda express}  it was delicious.  and, there's a nice stinky chinese market and live music too!  it made for a fun outing.

peruvian.

the other day, john and i were driving around atlanta and we spotted "contigo peru".  it advertised "fresh seafood!" in the window, and whenever we see "peru" and "seafood" in the same place we think just one thing:  ceviche.  so we made a date to go there over the weekend and i am so glad we did.  we dedicated the meal to sam, my amazing brother serving a mission in peru right now.

last weekend....

friday night we hung out with basically the only friends we have in Atlanta - the only other byu mba student here and her husband.  they made us some delicious barbecue and we hiked down to the chattahoochee river, which is beautiful at night.  i also saw my first firefly!

on saturday we went and saw man of steel. {and loved it}.  hazel did amazing during the movie. afterwards we got seafood {we're only an hour or so from the coast, after all....} and i have since been dreaming about that shrimp po' boy.

over the weekend.

over the weekend, we found an amazing pho place and i died from happiness.  then we went to atlantic station and i got superman ice cream.  

on saturday we found the most amazing frisbee golf park.  each hole was over 300 ft....

and our southern belle wore too large of a headband to church on sunday.  {our stake president reminded me of a baptist preacher in the way he spoke.  totally awesome.}

sushi.

i've been craving raw fish since pretty much day one of pregnancy.  i know, weird.  but i made john promise that once that baby was out of me, we would get sushi to celebrate.  yesterday he made good on that promise.  hazel came with us, obvi.  and so did ryan and janessa.  the long anticipation made the food even better!

sushi from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

a date with the hubbs.

it's been an embarrassingly long time since john and i have been able to go to the temple. finally, last saturday we were able to go, and it was lovely. {alberto's steak breakfast burritos on the way home!} thanks for the wonderful date, hubbs.

chinese take-out.

i really love those evenings when we just don't go anywhere.

our date night consists of "us" time.

we stay inside, watch a few episodes of person of interest, and eat chinese food.

i especially love it when john compliments my ever-improving chopsticks skills {i got pretty good in taiwan}

and i really love it when the cold warrants a warm blanket and some pumpkin hot chocolate to finish off the evening.

thanks for the wonderful night, john harman. stay-inside date nights are the best.

a little date to celebrate.

monday was our two year anniversary.  {oh gosh can you believe it?! two years!}  and we decided to celebrate with hibachi, since i've been craving it for some time....

it was delicious.  my only regret is that i couldn't eat some of john's "green dragon" sushi roll.  {no raw fish for me!}  john was really nice about it and considered forgoing the sushi to avoid making me jealous.  he's a pretty swell guy....

frisbee golf at solitude.

friday night we went up to my grandma's cabin and spent the night.  the next morning, we made a good breakfast and headed to solitude, where they have an 18-hole, three-and-a-half-hours disc golf course.  {including a 1200 ft hole at the very end, it took me six throws to get my frisbee down the hill}.  i had no idea how fun it would be!  we seriously had a blast.  the fall colors up there were incredible and the weather was perfect.

red robin.

to celebrate my last day of classes...

to celebrate my last day of winter semester classes (ever!).... buffalo wild wings with the fam and a late-night treat.

sammy's famous pie shakes.

saturday date:  dinner at sammy's for a delicious pumpkin pie cheesecake shake.