We have a backyard

We're so excited because we finally have a backyard. After living here over a year we knew it was time to put in a backyard. We have a big backyard and so we spent a long time agonizing over what to do with it all. We wanted to do some fun things with it but also leave enough room to be able to throw a ball around, etc.

Warning: This post will contain a lot of pictures so feel free to scroll through really fast. But I wanted to show you the before, during and after phases.

Before:
In the back corner of our lot, there is a 'retention pond' meaning a big hole for extra water to run into when it rains. It's mostly on the lot next door, so we got permission to fill our part in.



Shane standing in the 'hole' we filled in.

During:
Since I had to work while all the work was being done, I was very sad that I couldn't watch the progress during the day. Having such a great, techy husband that I do, he set up a webcam and it would take a picture every 5 minutes. It was especially fun the day the sod went in, it was amazing how much sod they could lay in just 5 minutes time.

The view from the webcam:

After:

So here are the results...I love it and we are so happy it's finished and we have a backyard we can enjoy. And yes we realize we have no trees and bushes. Those are coming next spring along with a small basketball court.

This lower patio will have a gazebo over it in a couple weeks after the concrete all sets

Happy Birthday to me

This last Monday was my birthday. Some of you may know that I love to celebrate my birthday. I've never had much of a problem getting older and it's just a fun day to let others spoil you. :) I love my birthday so much that I usually celebrate for about a week (I also celebrate my half birthday, just another excuse to celebrate something.)

This birthday week started out last Saturday when BYU opened their football season against No. 3 in the nation Oklahoma. I was just hoping they showed up and had a good game, but when they won...I knew it was going to be a good birthday week. As the game ticked down and ended, Shane turned to me and said 'Happy Birthday.' He knew how excited I was at this huge win.



Sunday we had our family birthday dinner. I share a birthday with my cute niece Kayla and then my sister Jennifer's birthday is 3 days after mine. So we had a very nice dinner, presents and a yummy bundt cake...can't top the 'Nothing but bundt cakes.'



Lucky for me this year my birthday fell on Labor Day so I got the day off work for my birthday. I slept in, laid around reading my book and then around lunchtime Shane had the rest of the day planned. We went to lunch, then drove up to Provo Falls, which is not in Provo for those who don't know that, but up past Kamas on the way up to Mirror Lake. We hiked around there for a while, took a really pretty drive, and saw the leaves just starting to change (sad.) We ended the day in Park City do some shopping at the outlets and dinner after that. It was really fun, relaxing day and so nice to just get out of the city for the day.





Tuesday they celebrated my birthday at work where I got my favorite kind of cookie from a nearby bakery and several co-workers took me out to lunch.

Wednesday, Shane and I and Brigitte and Tyler all went to the Keith Urban concert. We've had tickets for 6 months and I was soo excited to go. It was a fun time and Keith always puts on such a good show. He played straight for 2 hours!Tyler and Shane are not country fans but they were brave to come with us and Shane said it was better then he expected. They both said it's the best country concert they've been to...and yes they've been to a few with us.





Thursday night my parents took my sister and I out to dinner.
Friday Brigitte and I went to lunch to celebrate and then that night we went to a Peter Breinholt concert in the park.

So tonight ends my birthday week celebration with another BYU win and such a fun week. Yes I may be a year older, but it sure was fun to celebrate it with everyone. Thanks for all the well wishes. Here's to another year of fun and good times ahead.

Light the Night

On Friday, October 2, 2009, I will be participating in the Light the Night walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I would love anyone who wants to join me, to come walk with our team and raise some money for this great organization. Their research and information has helped to not only save my life, but my nieces as well.

Our team name: Sheri's Hodge Podge's

If you can't walk with us, then please take a moment to donate. Any amount will do...seriously, any!! Click Donate Now.

Click here to see my fundraising page and the cutest picture of my niece!

Thanks for all your support through my whole ordeal, I'm still feeling great and healthy and this is just one more way I...and you...can give back and help others that are or will one day struggle from this ugly thing called Cancer.

ZipLine

On Monday night, Brigitte and Tyler and Shane and I took a little adventure down south to a new zipline that has opened up in Spanish Fork. (Thanks for the info. Lisa.) It was fun to get out and do something a little different. Through the end of September on week nights you can get a coupon to do the zipline for $5, a pretty good deal. And although I thought it was pretty fun, I don't know if I would want to pay more then $5 to do it again. So if you have time, everyone should head down there and try it out. It wasn't crowded when we were there at all.

Afterwards we stopped for my favorite Mexican in Provo, Los Hermanos...mmm chips and salsa and shredded chicken tacos, my favorite. All in all it was a fun night to hang out with friends.












Shane was the last one down so we didn't get any pictures of him.

Mr. and Mrs. Pace

Brigitte is married!!!!! I couldn't be more happy for her.

The day turned out perfect. Both Tyler and Brigitte smiled all day long. Well, I did see a couple tears during the ceremony but they were happy tears. They both looked gorgeous, well Brigitte was gorgeous, Tyler was handsome of course. Brigitte's dress was so beautiful on her and of course Tyler's suit matched perfectly. They make quite the couple. Even the weather cooperated, with only a little wind during some pictures at the temple.

The reception was amazing, in her parents backyard and the yard looked perfect. All the colors, flowers, cake, everything turned their backyard into something amazing. We ate ice cream, candy and cake and it was all soo good. In fact I am still thinking about my lemon and raspberry ice cream with raspberry topping...mmmm good.

Most of all they are happy and I think Brigitte will agree when I say it was the day Brigitte always dreamed her wedding day would be.

So without further ado, I present to you:

MR. AND MRS. TYLER PACE...











Brigitte and I both survived and helped each other through many years of single life. It was good, fun, and frustrating. Now we continue our friendship with our husbands by our side.



So now they are off to start married life, and how great it is. I am so excited for them to start this journey and hope they always remember their wonderful wedding day.

Hot, hot, hot!

This last week my family went down to St. George for a little family vacation. I was a little, ok a lot worried that we would roast to death down there and why in the world were we going to St. George at one of the hottest times of the year. Of course we had a great time and found things to do and ways to stay cool and entertained.

My parents have a timeshare and we were able to not only get their timeshare, but they upgraded us to the penthouse! Which means we had a bigger condo to hang out in and we had our own private hot tub on the balcony. It made it fun because all the kids could swim in the hot tub while we watched them in the air conditioned condo. We also went to the pool each day and evening and tried to stay cool and used lots of sunblock. I am amazed at what good swimmers each of the kids are in our family.



The other big hit was the elevator rides the kids loved to go on. Constantly cute little Mia would come up and grab my hand and start leading me to the elevator. Of course I couldn't tell her no, so we went up and down the elevator many times.





One morning my dad, Cameron, Shane and I went to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls. I am not a golfer but it was fun to practice my swing. Maybe I'll take golf up one day.





We also got tickets to go see Annie at the Tuacahn ampitheatre. I loved the movie Annie and the play was really good. I tried not to sing along too loud but how can you not help but sing along with all those good songs. Even though the show didn't start until 830pm, we still roasted out there. Luckily there was a little breeze through part of it, but as soon as it stopped it was hot again.





We ate at Cafe Rio for Christy, and In-n-out for the rest of us, saw G-Force 3D (don't bother) and just had a good time hanging out.

One of the most fun parts of the trip was my dad put together 'Deal or No Deal' for each family member to play. We played a few rounds each night until everyone got a turn. The $ amounts ranged from $1 to $30. The 'banker' (my dad) seemed to be a little biased towards the grandchildren but we all had a fun time. Eliza got the highest amount of $16, I got $15, Shane got $12, we thought Jeff was going to be the lowest winner with only $8 but leave it to Christy to go all the way and chance it and open her envelope to find.....$1! We had a good laugh at that one, she was so mad. Her only goal at first was to make sure she beat Jeff, but then I think she got a little greedy and kept going a little too long.







Thanks Mom and Dad for a fun trip!

Island Park, Idaho

This last weekend Shane and I headed up to Island Park, ID for the his family reunion on his mom's side of the family. I have actually never been to Island Park and we had such a great weekend.


Shane and I, Shane's Mom, and her parents at the family reunion.

We got up there on Friday night and headed straight for the local rodeo. When I say local...I mean local. Basically anyone that was there could just walk up and participate. Shane's cousin rode a bull, another relative rode the steer and of course the young kids participated in the chase the calf event, whatever it's really called.



Saturday morning we drove over to the Mesa Falls. I was actually very impressed with the size of this fall and it was soo beautiful with the constant rainbow at the bottom of it. Then we drove around the lake and saw the huge lake front cabins.





Saturday lunch time was the official family reunion. I didn't count but I am sure there were close to 75 people there. It was fun meeting a lot of family that I had never met before.

Saturday afternoon Shane and I drove over to West Yellowstone and walked through the town looking at some shops and then buying some yummy fudge. Saturday night we went out to dinner with some of Shane's cousins and it was fun getting to know them better.

Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting at the Island Park ward. Over the holiday weekends, they have a huge turn out and this year was no different, they had over 2000 people in attendance. They were in every room in the church, on the lawn and anywhere you can think of.

After church we checked out of the motel and and drove over to Big Springs where we saw huge fish that you can feed and some beautiful water. There was even a muskrat swimming around that was kind of cute.





After another lunch with family, we headed home. We had such a great time relaxing (although I am pretty sure the mattress we slept on is the worst mattress I've ever slept on.) It was soo nice to get away just for the weekend and see a place I've never been to. I hope to go back and spend more time there hiking, floating the river, and doing some other things.