Birthday Fun

On Saturday, I turned the big 2-3 (although a few of my family members thought it was the big 2-4. Noooot quite. You'd all have to be year older for that to be true.) To celebrate, Tyler and I decided to start the day by hiking to the hot springs up Spanish Fork Canyon. Here are some pictures from the hike. Because I am the "family photographer," as Tyler puts it, I'm not in many of the pictures. The only picture that I am in isn't very good, so I'm not going to post it. :)

Here is Tyler at the hot springs.

The waterfall (and a, thankfully, not-nude bather).

"Is this the right place?" Tyler checking his GPS. Note the stellar masonry work in the background. It makes for some nice "hot springing." (P.S. We weren't really lost.)

On this hike, I learned how the earth passes gas: through hot springs. They stunk SO bad - compliments to the sulfur. Tyler and I had planned on getting in, but were immediately turned off by the putrid smell. In this picture, I caught the earth passing gas. I hope she's not embarrassed.

On Saturday afternoon, Tyler and I went to a Jeffs & Jeffs work party at Rob and Tracy's house. It was a lot of fun, and the food was fantastic! We had some of the halibut that the Jeffs boys brought back from Alaska. Mmmm.

After the work party, Tyler surprised me by taking me back to his parents' house for a surprise birthday party. Miri and Mike, Sami and Mark, and Katie and Joey all showed up for the surprise. We had some delicious Coldstone cake and then played Wii late into the night. Tyler did a great job putting the surprise together. :)

On Sunday, Tyler and I went up to my parents' house for halibut tacos and some more Coldstone ice cream. We then spent the evening watching the Olympics. Go USA!

Overall, it was a fun birthday! Now if only the birthdays could stop here...

What's in a name?

I saw this on Leslie's blog, and I thought it was so cool that I had to do it myself!

What Christine Means

You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

What Tyler Means

You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

One Year Anniversary

Tyler and I celebrated our one year anniversary on July 14. I can't believe how time flies! It's incredible to me that it's already been on year. Many more great years to come.

We didn't end up celebrating on our actual anniversary (we were busy out working in the yard), but we did make up for it by going to PF Changs and seeing Get Smart during the week. We have plans to (hopefully) do something a little more fun once school starts and our lives resume a more normal schedule.

To reminisce of that wonderful day, I've included some pictures:

Everyone at the temple ceremony. We were married at the Sacramento California Temple. The Jeffs' side had a better showing at the temple that day. They're on the left side of us. :)

The Jeffs family at the temple. Geez the nieces and nephews have grown!

The Weidmer family at the temple. We missed Kevin that day.

Wedding party plus the Jeffs and the Weidmers. Funny to think that Ashley (two left from me) was single at that time and is now married, living beneath me, and pregnant! :)

Happy Anniversary to us!!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

The time has finally come for me to read the seventh Harry Potter! I know that this book has been out for a while (over a year), but I haven't read it yet. I decided that before I read it, I had to read the first six to refresh my memory to the things of Harry Potter. I started with the first book back in May, and I finished the sixth book this morning. Now I'm sufficiently prepped for this last book. I'm excited to read what happens!!

5k Number Three

Well, I did it again - I ran my third 5k of the summer. This 5k was a fundraiser for the Best Buddies Utah organization in hopes of bringing chapters of Best Buddies to Utah county high schools. (For more information on what Best Buddies is all about, go to bestbuddiesutah.org.)


The race took place at Mountain View high school in Orem. The course was great because it was relatively flat for the entire 3.1 miles, but somewhat disappointing because they had us run two laps towards the end of the race - something that is not necessarily exciting when it comes to running. (But who am I to say? I do all of my running on the treadmill!)

I ran the race with girls from work: Aubrey, Katie, Jessica, and Jenny. Katie's husband, Joey, ran with us too. They all did so great! And it was fun to get out and run with them. Afterwards, we floated the Provo River to celebrate and relax.

And now, for the exciting part: I ran this 5k a minute and a half faster than my last one! My time was 27:20, a 1:31 improvement over my second 5k, and a 2:10 improvement over my first 5k. I was shocked with my time (especially since I averaged a pace of less than a 9 minute mile), but I was also very pleased. As usual, my goal for the next 5k I run in will be to beat my previous time.

But we'll have to wait until August to see if that happens!

New Link: Frugal is Fab!

Seeing as there's not too much to do while playing receptionist, I've been blog surfing, if you will. I came across a "frugal" blog that a stay-at-home mom is doing, and I think it's fantastic! This blog is actually maintained by the sister of someone who was in my singles ward at Glenwood. I hope she doesn't mind that I added the link to my blog.

:)

Happy money saving!

Summertime

Now that Tyler is done with his LSAT class and has taken his test, we've started to have some fun this summer! This past weekend we made up for the first few months we missed out on because Tyler was studying so diligently. (We find out how well Tyler did on his LSAT next week!)

:)

Last Wednesday, Tyler and I went up to my parent's house to spend some time with them. Tyler went biking with Kevin while I went running and spent some time with my mom and sister. We then enjoyed dinner with all of my family.

Last Thursday, Tyler went biking with Greg (I can't remember where) while I hiked the Y with some girls from work - Jessica, Katie, Aubrey, and Jenny. I took my camera with me, but didn't end up taking any pictures. I'll have to see if I can't get some from Jenny. It was fun, and the view is beautiful up there.

On Saturday morning, Tyler woke up really early to start working on our house. We've had plans to fix up our house for some time now, so we decided we better get started. Tyler trimmed back the pine tree over our house, pulled out old bushes and trees with his truck, and dug a hole under the walkway so that we can get water to the other side of the house and plant some bushes there. I mowed the lawn and pulled weeds (after I woke up). We then took all of our clippings to the green waste in Provo.

On Saturday afternoon, we went boating with Tyler's parents and his sister Andi's family at Yuba Lake - about an hour south of Provo on I-15. I had never been there before, but it was a lot of fun. We wakeboarded and tubed all afternoon - although I'm not very good at either. (For pictures of us boating, go to the Hadlocks or Ma and Pa blog, as listed on my sidebar.)

On Sunday, we went to my parent's house to celebrate my dad's 49th birthday. We celebrated with a traditional ice cream cake from Basket Robbins and had steaks for dinner.

On Monday, the house-fixing-up-plans continued with more cleaning up and more digging. We even made a trip to Home Depot to check out sprinkler stuff and to get an idea of what kind of flowers and shrubs we want to plant. Later that night, we helped Tyler's parents take the boat back to storage and Andi's swing to her house.

So far, our summer has been pretty good. Too bad school starts in less than two months!