The One that Stays in Vegas

Maybe my love of birthdays hasn't exactly rubbed off on Justin (I think that's just because he's older ;) but he has thankfully picked up on the fact that my birthday at least is a VERY BIG DEAL!  Way back in January he was already saying he had my present and I have to admit I was on the lookout every time I cleaned the apartment.  But I never saw anything!!  He finally had to spill the beans a week before my birthday and surprised me with tickets to the Pac-12 men's basketball tournament in Las Vegas!!  Woot!!!  My two loves- Justin and Arizona basketball :)  Life doesn't get better than that folks!

Other amazing presents: new slippers from Mom (I find them to be an absolute necessity up here), a new book and these gorgeous flowers from Misha.

 

We woke up early on Thursday and drove all the way to Vegas.

Justin found a really cheap hotel less than a mile from the MGM Grand where the tournament was being held.  We checked in and walked to the arena.  Or maybe I skipped a little.  We had student tickets and they were supposed to mail them to us but of course through some administrative errors (blah, blah) we had to pick them up at the arena.  Only the MGM Grand is HUGE!  And not very clearly marked.  We were waiting in (the wrong) line when the Utah Pac-12 rep who helped Justin buy the tickets walked by.  He had some tickets on him and gave them to us.  Here's the best part about that: our ticket package came with one session of two games for each day of the tournament.  We missed the first round on Wednesday because Arizona had a bye and we didn't want to take 3 days off work so we forfeited those tickets.  We thought that might have been the only day Utah would play and had to decide to miss that game.  Utah, however, surprised everyone and made it to the semifinal round.  So when Justin and I got to Vegas on Thursday we had to pick Session 1 to watch Arizona or Session 2 to watch Utah.  Really not a hard choice for me but since the Utah rep gave us extra tickets and let us know where we could pick up the tickets we had bought, we got to go to both sessions and watch both our teams play!!  Yay!!  We watched 4 basketball games in a row!!  Good thing we're fans :)

 

There are always lots of things going on during timeouts these days.  Contests and giveaways, etc. and Vegas was no exception.  There was a man who would come out during the first media timeout in the second half of each game to give away tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show.  He was looking for the "loudest fan."  You guys know I can get loud when I want to and I wanted free tickets.  During the first session our seats were in the corner so I'm pretty sure I had little to no chance to win tickets in those seats but our second session seats were amazing.  Just off half court and about 5 rows up.  I was so certain I was going to get those tickets.  The guy came out during the 3rd game and stood right in front of us.  I stood up and screamed and shouted "It's my birthday!!"  We made eye contact!  And then he ran right by me and gave the tickets to someone else :(  But now he knew where I was and I still had a chance.  I even got the support of the other fans sitting around us.  Apparently other people think birthdays are big deals too.  The second half of the 4th game started and the first timeout came, quickly followed by the Cirque ticket man.  He stood right in front of me and I jumped and screamed and everyone around me screamed and pointed at me and I knew he was going to give me tickets!!  But the poophead gave them to someone else.  Again.  What a stinker!!  All I got was a sore throat and a blister on my toe.

Arizona and Utah both won on Thursday which was better than Cirque tickets anyway and meant we got to watch both teams again.  Friday and Saturday only had one session each so we didn't have to choose which team to watch.  I was certain Arizona was going to beat UCLA on Friday and make it to the championship game.  Partly because everyone else thought so too and partly because Justin and I took advantage of the morning off to go to the temple.
 

Aaron Barker photography

Side note: I love the Vegas temple!  It's actually my favorite celestial room.  I've even been to the San Diego temple which everybody else seems to love and personally prefer Vegas.  Salt Lake has a special place in my heart of course and is probably my favorite temple silhouette but they recently redid the Vegas celestial room and it is so gorgeous and peaceful.  I was very tempted to put Sean Miller and Nick Johnson on the temple roll but I didn't.  God doesn't play favorites in sports people, no matter what the athletes say :)

Sad news- Arizona and Utah both lost in the semifinals.  Originally I had told Justin that I didn't care who was in the championship game and we should stay to watch it no matter what.  Turns out that I didn't think that through and I did not want to watch UCLA in the final.  By the way, their win was highly controversial and has actually now resulted in the resignation of the Pac-12 commissioner of officials.  Just sayin'.

So Saturday morning (which was actually my birthday) we checked out of the hotel and drove all the way back to SLC to go to the Florida-Utah gymnastics meet that night.  Florida and Utah both have excellent gymnastics teams and alternate hosting a meet every year.  Justin and I go to the Utah meets pretty often and never miss when Florida comes to visit.  That was the original plan before I knew we had tickets to the basketball tournament anyway.  We ended up seeing some new friends from the ward at the meet and they went out for Fleming's chocolate lava cake with us afterward.

Which is still so good it almost made me feel better about the Arizona loss.

 

Almost.

 

The One with 31

Tricky title!!  I don't have any more "things" to write about.  Just a quick update on our February.  Justin had a birthday and things have been crazy so I didn't plan anything big.  And despite all my efforts, Justin is still not a huge birthday person and never wants a big party anyway.  We've been talking about learning how to play racquetball so I bought Justin a couple racquets.  And one of them came with some cool eyewear :)  The best part was probably the wrapping.  How awesome is this bag!!

You may have noticed the name on the card.  It's a joke from one of my favorite Justin stories.  Back in college (aren't we still there?) Justin used to have movie marathons with a group of friends.  This usually involved a day (or entire weekend) of watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, extended edition, or all 6 Star Wars.  What a nerd!  Hahaha!  I totally would have gone :)  After one of their LOTR parties, Justin thought it would be cool to have a name like the characters in the movie and came up with "Justin, son of Bustin."  This makes me laugh every time!  (If you recall, Justin really likes the LOTR trilogy)  Also, I bought the bag at Smith's during a grocery shopping trip and for some reason there were 3 guys at the checkout stand.  All 3 commented on the bag and when I explained it was actually for my husband and not a 6 year old nephew they thought I was the coolest wife ever :)  This evolved into a conversation on how "edgy" the new Batman movies have been to which I replied that the comics actually were pretty dark, not campy like all the previous movies and the TV show.  Why do I know this?!  I've honestly never read a comic.  That either made me look even cooler or way nerdy.

 
Justin's birthday landed on President's Day this year which is one of those holidays that means the University is closed but we sometimes choose to still go in to work.  We opted for skiing this year :)  It was a little cold so I really bundled up.  Justin laughs at me when I'm "all bundly."

Awesome views on the backside of the mountain.  And Justin's head isn't really that big, he's wearing a helmet under his hood.

I "treated" Justin to dinner at Fleming's Steakhouse that night.  Thank goodness we had a gift card because after tip it was still over $100!!  I think that's the most we've ever spent on a meal but it was so worth it!!!  I would highly recommend eating there at least once in your life (most likely for a special occasion).  And you absolutely have to get the chocolate lava cake.  They really should name it something else because that's a pretty common dessert but no other cake holds a candle to that one.  The waiter said the chefs use some kind of black magic that he can't do to make it and I believe him.  I'm drooling just remembering it.

The One with the Busy-ness

March is madness!  (Sadly, not for Arizona this year.  Seriously boys, how did your season end so badly?!)  I knew this month was going to be crazy heading into it, and it won't stop until about mid-April, but I am exhausted!  I'm sure I'll do another catch up post with some pictures later but just in case here's what we have been up to.

Justin presented his latest research at Pittcon.  It's one of the bigger national conferences so I was excited for him.  He didn't win an award this time but it still looks nice on the resume.  And it was in Orlando so he was able to see some friends and family and we didn't have to pay for the ticket :)  He was a little upset when he got back though because to pass the time I went skiing with some friends and mountain biking by myself twice.  I also finally finished organizing the spare room (for the umpteenth time, we need to stop getting new stuff.), scrubbed the bathroom, washed every scrap of laundry in the apartment, filled our windshield washer fluid reservoirs, etc.  I clean when I'm bored and I was definitely bored without my husband.  I hate when we're apart!

I turned 28 just one week ago.  28!!  I understand a little more now about why Justin freaked out about 30.  I just don't feel that old.  While Justin was gone I "had" to run some errands and walked in to Payless.  I saw the cutest pair of tan heels and Justin said (via text) that I could get them for my bday.  He loves me.  He also treated me to dinner at the Melting Pot, one of the restaurants on our "must eat at" list.  It was so fun!  And delicious.  We actually got so full we didn't eat dessert.  Someday we'll go back for some chocolate fondue :)

This week I am attending the ACS (American Chemical Society) conference in San Diego.  I actually flew in early to attend a workshop at UC-Irvine and get to take the train (I know, Justin's so jealous I get to ride a train) to SD tomorrow.  This means that Justin and I have been apart basically half of this month.  Half!!  One day is too long.  I guess it's good preparation for our 8 day separation when I go to London.  London baby!!  I need to catch up on some sleep before then.

The One with Justin's Big Birthday!!

Justin is now 25(+5)!!  Knowing he was not too excited about this birthday I wanted to make it extra special for him.  Birthdays are another odd difference that Justin and I have.  He really doesn't care and I care a lot.  I love birthdays!!  I mean, schools shut down for a week when my birthday rolls around!  Or that's just when they schedule Spring Break, whatever.  Anyway, I had plans to make him an amazing Gator cake and all of his uncles came out to celebrate with him (or ski, again whatever).

After a good afternoon of skiing, Justin, Wes, Mitch, Kelly, Jeremy and I went to Settebello's for dinner.  They make authentic Napoletano pizza.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  It is good!  (Well, don't ask Steve.  We took him once too and he was disappointed it didn't taste like Pizza Hut.  No culture for that one!)  Then we came back to our apartment for cake and ice cream.  This beast took me all night but I think it turned out well- thanks to Wendy and her cake decorating tips because this is my first attempt at anything beyond butter knife smeared frosting.

 Before

After

These pictures didn't turn out very well (I think I still had the camera in "snow" mode).

We didn't want to burn down the house so I just put in one candle :)

 

Opening presents:

My parents gave Justin a Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter.  Which meant we had to have pizza for dinner on Sunday.  Just so he could use it :)

 They also gave him another Carcassonne expansion that I've already played with and love!

We are looking for a new jacket for Justin (for his birthday) but I still wanted him to have something to open and these potato guns were obviously a good choice.

His mom sent him some much needed new dress shirts and, of course, reinforcements for the Florida stash.

30 was a hard year to get Justin thinking birthdays are awesome but I think I might have succeeded.  Just a little bit.

Happy Birthday Hubby!!

The One with the Big Birthday

Happy Birthday to Mom!!

I love my mom!! 

She is the most amazing woman in the world.

Seriously, if you want something done and you want it done right, don't do it yourself...

ask my mom!

She is ridiculously smart, organized and extremely talented.

When I grow up I want to be just like her :)

The One Where We Went Downhill

Literally.  I had such a hard time deciding what to get Justin for his birthday this year when I remembered we'd been talking about sledding.  It has snowed A LOT up here this winter.  Probably as much this year as in my other two winters here combined.  So I got Justin two sleds.  Here we are trying them out for the first time.

The Snow Boogie

We are obviously not even amateurs.  Two kids showed up halfway through our sled date and showed us up with some crazy snowboard/sled hybrids that slid downhill like a dream.  And, more importantly, under control.

Oh and when I said it snowed, I mean it snowed.  This was my truck at noon today!