Flash Forward

We got a fun glimpse into our future this weekend as we babysat the Hendricks kids! Nothing like getting to tell Matt that it is his turn to change a diaper while I make dinner and keep an eye on the other kids :-) Actually, we've already established our future diaper duties--me during the day, Matt at night. It's only fair, right?

Wish me luck with that game plan.

Anyway. The other babysitter came over during the day on Saturday so I could go to Air Force's Blue & Silver scrimmage. Thanks to two bum hamstrings and tendon damage in his wrist, Matt is sidelined for the season. He joined the coaching staff, though, and is loving it! Since he's a coach, I got to go to the team luncheon in the press box afterward. It's always fun/interesting doing team stuff with Air Force after spending years doing it with BYU's football program. We sat with some of Matt's receivers (he coaches the JV receivers & helps run the scout team) and had a blast!

Although, I felt a little out of place being the only girl in a room of 150 boys :-)

After lunch, we took a quick nap before heading back to the kids. I made a delicious Stouffers dinner (I told you it was a glimpse of our future!) and we played in the backyard. Matt & Preston, of course, got to play football...

...while I assumed swing pushing duties. Currently, that's one of my 5 major functions in life:

work, eat, sleep, run, and push my baby brothers on the swings. Why should Colorado be any different?

(PS--I'm definitely adding my future daughters to Mason's waiting list. Hey, it worked for me and Matt...)

Once dinner had settled, we headed over to Maggie Moo's for dessert. It started out innocently enough. But then the kids and their bright blue cotton candy ice cream started looking like this:

So we went with it :-)

Good thing baths were already the next thing on the agenda!

Here we go!

I'm used to flying a few times a month, but we're about to enter uncharted territory.

A glimpse of my calendar for the next 9 weekends:
Colorado, Colorado, Colorado, Anaheim, Colorado, New York, Colorado, home/Colorado, Colorado.

Keep in mind that every time I fly, I have to work overtime Monday-Thursday so I can catch my plane on Friday.

I'll try to fit breathing into my schedule.

Matt Goes to School, Ash Goes to Brian Regan

For some reason, I think I got the better end of the deal! USAFA decides to make their semesters about a month longer than everyone else, so they jumped right in on August 7th. This is actually quite exciting for me because it means new freshmen to be entertained by. I'm not sure Matt feels the same way, though...

If you look closely, all of those little dots are cadets coming back from lunch. Can you find Matt? :-)

Okay, he was actually right behind me... But I made sure I got a picture of his last 1st day of school. He is such a good sport.
I brought our buddy Preston to watch Air Force's football practice that Friday and Matt stayed late to play catch with him on the field. I love that second picture of them together! So sweet.

(In case you were wondering what that black thing around Matt's calf is, it was holding the ice around his injured hamstring & just slipped down.)

All of the seniors in Matt's squadron had their annual dining out at PF Changs that Saturday & I got to tag along. Here's Anthony, Matt & me enjoying the Chinese cuisine. (Our FAVORITE food, right Matt?)

Bulldawgs, Class of '09
And our obligatory picture by the horse:

After dinner, we finally made it to The Dark Knight. Great acting & cinematography but, well, dark.

On Sunday, there was a full rainbow after dinner at the Nichols' and Anthony, of all people, decided that we needed to take a picture with it. Probably just so Matt could make the squinty face below:
Then it was back to Utah for my off-weekend. Usually those are pretty boring, but this one was definitely not--my uncle Brian & aunt Sharla gave me their extra Brian Regan tickets! Christian & I had fun with Kyle & Michelle:

Sometimes we think it's fun to wear matching t-shirts. Oh, and

Brian Regan is hilarious.

The best part of the night? His impromtu act about football.
Or maybe the part about a model prisoner. No reason.

Missing July already...

We spent Pioneer Day with Matt's family up in Bear Lake and came back home for the legendary Cedar Hills fireworks that weekend. The weekend before, though, we ate lunch at the Lion House Pantry with both of our parents so we could check out our wedding dinner location... which we booked! That means we officially have all the big items done for the wedding, 10 months in advance. Love it. Despite rain earlier that week, we lucked out and enjoyed beautiful weather on the lake.
We whipped out Bocce for a few games in the sand. Matt and I were undefeated--thanks to Matt.

Please excuse the following interruption from regular blogging...

Missing: my most favorite sunglasses in the history of the world (pictured below).

Last seen on the boat while I was on the tube.

They are about 200 yards off of this beach.

Efforts to find a suitable replacement have been fruitless.

Reward for their safe return!

Now, back to the blog...
Matt had never been on a jet ski (?!) so we felt the need to rent one. We had SO much fun!

Now he's on board with its position as #1 on our wish list of future toys.

That night, Matt won the rather intense gummi bear guessing game. He guessed 816 & there were 808. Good thing this wasn't Price is Right... Also a good thing that all the nieces and nephews ate his spoils instead of me.
Pretty view of the lake from the condo's back porch on our last night...
Then back to my babies (okay, they're my mom's babies) in Cedar Hills.

Despite what you see in this picture, Gabe really enjoyed the fireworks :-)

As you can probably tell, the boys L-O-V-E Matt and want to be with him every second that he's around.

They were pretty bummed when he had to go back to "codowado."
Me too.

Can't wait until next July when we won't have to say goodbye!

We come in 2's.

It seems so simple, but one of the things that I really miss with having a long distance relationship is being able to go on group dates with friends. We always make sure we get our fix whenever Matt comes into town. It's fun getting to be just a normal couple and do normal couple things, if even just for a little while.

We started off with a double with my super-long acronymn Liz and her husband, Ryan. We went bowling at the Fat Catz in Salt Lake...

...which happens to be where Matt & I went after watching the Fiesta Bowl on our first date.

Maybe that's why it was so lucky for him--he bowled a turkey! As you can see from my pitiful score below, never in my wildest dreams will I get three strikes in a row :-)

After bowling, we ended up at an Iceberg--always so good.

A few days later, we got to go on our long-awaited cousin date! My dad is the oldest of 9 kids and there are almost 40 grandkids on his side alone. We were all born into these little cousin groups who we're really close with. Mine consists of the oldest 4 grandkids--myself, my big sister April, Kyle & Angie. We're all grown up and married (or soon-to-be married in my case) now, which means our little group has doubled. We love our cousin's spouses so it makes it even more fun! ANYWAY, for our cousin date, we went up to my uncle Brian's cabin for dinner and games.

From left to right... Kyle & Michelle, Matt & Ash, Angie & Klane

Good times.

Next up was my high school friend Brooke's wedding! She and her husband Nick have been together for almost as long as Matt & I will be by the time we get married. Crazy!

Her reception was at the 23rd floor, which just happens to be where we had prom our senior year. Great place for a little reunion with some of my best HS friends! They hadn't met Matt yet so I was more than happy to show him off :-)

And, of course, we went out with Alicia & Sterling! Sterling is a golfer and Matt is currently obsessed with golfing, so the four of us spent an afternoon at Thanksgiving Point.

It was my first time golfing and boy, do I need some work! I shot a 61 on 9 holes and called it a day haha. If only it didn't take me 5 strokes to get where everyone else's drive goes...

Oh well. We followed up our round of golf with a dinner date that night at Pizza Factory.

Can't wait till we get to do that again in... oh right, November. In the meantime, looks like it will be single dates for us in Colorado!

The great outdoors

Big annoucement, people: Just ten more months till we get married! I remember talking to Liz about it walking to class one day last fall and thinking it would be so exciting for the countdown to be on two hands (only ten fingers instead of fingers, toes, eyes, etc.). Well, my friends, the day has finally come and it is that exciting (for Matt and I, at least). Anyway, onto Matt's whopping 2 1/2 week summer break here in Utah:

We'll lead off the picture parade with mini-golf at good ol' Trafalga:

Joshie demonstrated to Matt the most effective way to get the ball in the hole:
just drop it in.

Wish I had followed Josh's advice--I barely got under par. Gone are the days of my serial-dating mini-golf prowess, I suppose.

Shifting gears... We live 5 minutes away from AF canyon and most definitely take advantage of it. Matt had never kayaked before so we had a lot of fun out at Tibblefork.

He can kayak a lot faster than me (surprise, surprise).

Bonus points if you can name the movie that inspired this next picture:

"I'm a sailor! I sail! Ahoy!"

Nevermind the fact that kayaking isn't exactly sailing, of course.

My family took up a couple fishing poles just for fun. As you can tell, we're really into catching fish... (notice Nicole's disgusted face when she caught one haha)

On the way back home, we stopped off at a campsite to make s'mores.

Then, since we are such hard-core outdoorsmen, we set up our big family tent in our backyard and camped out... Although, to my dad's credit (he is an outdoorsy guy), we wanted to camp in the mountains but couldn't get a reservation at a campground. Apparently those things are in high demand. Who knew?