Quarter of a Century Club!

If I would have known that turning 25 was going to be so freaking fun, I would have acted more excited about it beforehand. I don't know why, but 25 just sounded so.... old er...mature? Not way old, but like, shooooot I'm old enough to rent a car + I should probably stop asking for suckers at the bank? But I'm over it, because 25 was probably my best birthday yet!

It all started last Thursday when I walked into a fully decorated classroom + presents from previous students and co-workers (all of whom know my love language is food). Oh, and if you ever want your birthday to feel really special, be a jr. high teacher--your students are more excited for your birthday than you are ("Do we have to do anything today since it's your birthday on Saturday?"). It also didn't hurt that I had the next day off from school.

Sadly, Chris was in St. George on my day off on Friday, but he totally made up for it with the vinyl machine that I sent multiple emails to him about a month in advance ;) Saturday (my actual birthday) started off with my most favorite, most artery clogging breakfast--The Champ from Ernie's! Then I took advantage of what I like to call "birthday Chris," and had him take me to Ulta to pick up my free gift there (makeup is my second love language) and then we headed up to Salt Lake to stay at the Marriott Hotel up by the U.

I had to say bye to "birthday Chris" when we got to the hotel, so that he could watch the BYU game. BUT the hotel brought up a beautiful tray of delicious food and I was able to play with some new makeup while the Cougs played, so I was okay with giving "birthday Chris" a break.

After the game was over Chris took me to one of my fav restaurants, Alamexo! Kind of pricey, but definitely worth it. If you ever go there please order the queso fundido! You can thank me later for it.

The rest of the night was spent shopping at City Creek and hot tubbing at the hotel. I really don't think I could have planned a better birthday than that. And it sounds so stupid to say, but I feel like this fun birthday and little staycation was just what I needed you know? I feel refreshed + recharged + more accepting of the fact that I'm part of the quarter of a century club.

With each passing year there's always one thing that remains the same on my birthday--Remembering how blessed I am! I have the best family and friends that always take time out of their day to wish me a happy birthday, and I am always so grateful for it (even if I forget to proclaim said gratitude on Facebook... oops!)

As you can tell, year 25 of life is already off to a great start! The only thing I'm not so sure about is giving up suckers from the bank.... that might have to be a half century kind of thing. We'll see.

Cheers 25, cheers.

Tuliping + Half Marathoning + Mother's daying

This weekend felt so, so busy! But the good kind of busy, like the busy that makes you feel like you got your sh*z together, you know? I only say that because I feel like I have anything BUT my sh*z together these days... why is May the month where students decide to go crazy and act like they don't need to follow rules anymore? Can I just curl up in the fetal position and read Harry Potter and have Chris feed me chocolate peanut butter ice cream? Ah, I'll save you from my teacher vents (Chris can be the lucky one to hear them ha!) and just get back to telling you how BUSY I was this weekend... ha! I'm the worst.

The weekend started off with me and Chris going to the Tulip Festival on Friday... after it hailed all day...leaving pretty much all the tulips destroyed. NBD. I think that worked in Chris' favor, though... since I only asked him to take ONE picture there with me. Chris did tell me he had mentally prepared himself for 5 or 6 pictures, though... he's slowly learning! But anyway, I guess we couldn't complain too much about the destroyed tulips since I was able to get us in for free (#teacherperks) + I love just walking around those gardens because it brings up memories from one of my most favorite dates with Chris (you can read about that here). Long story short: We had fun tuliping for date night!

Saturday was my half marathon! <--You'd think from that exclamation point that it was something I trained consistently for, and didn't completely stuff myself with Los Hermanos the night before... but you'd be wrong! Because I probably should have trained more, and ate a lot less Mexican food... but it all worked out! I made it across the finish line without losing my sh*z (literally) + I crossed the finish line with my brother, Mckay! It was his first half marathon ever and I was so proud of us because we never stopped and walked or anything. It was so fun, and I hope that Mckay will forget the pain of those last 4 miles so that he'll want to sign up for another race with me! I'm strategically waiting a couple of months before I ask him.

Last but not least... Mother's Day! Chris surprised me with my favorite homemade smoothie in bed + a Swig giftcard + ice cream. Is Chris my person or is he my person? Which now that I think about it, maybe I need to set the standard a little higher than just bringing me all of the junk food to become "my person." Anyway, Chris was so sweet and made this Mother's Day imposter feel special.

And speaking of Mother's Day. . . I'm so grateful for my own mom and my mother-in-law! They are both so self-less, funny, loving, AND always feeding me... so I guess I can consider them both "my person" too? Anyway, I'm grateful for all the other wonderful mother figures in my life--aunts, cousins, sisters, friends--I love you all! Can we all just agree with Beyoncé when she asks us WHO RUN THE WORLD?!

I hope everyone had as "busy" of Mother's Day weekend as I pretended to have + has the ability to walk down the stairs normally.

xo

Weekending in St. George

^^Fake smiles because Chris just tipped over a full 44oz Triple D drink right before this^^ If you look closely, you'll notice a vain in my forehead trying it's best to not jump out of my head and strangle Chris :) 

What better day than a cold, wet, rainy Tuesday to blog about the quick, "spontaneous" (planning a trip in less than 3 days is a big deal for us Gourley's!) weekend we had in St. George? 

Chris and I love St. George... Chris loves it because he can golf there, and I love it because I can get my Swig there. But wait, can't we do those things at home? Answer: yes. But I can't be the only who thinks that everything is just better in St. George, right? Pickleball, shopping, frozen custard, Chili's, sugar cookies, hiking, golfing. . . we have those things here, but...but...St. George!!! 

By the way, all those things I just mentioned that are better in St. George are exactly what we did there this weekend. What's even better is that we did all those things with some of my favorite people: Shelby + Cade + mama & papa Sanderson. Thanks for letting us crash your 6 month anniversary, Shelbs ;) 

St. George, WE LOVE YOU! And I'm sure we'll be back real soon... especially since I can't stop dreaming of Nielsen's Frozen Custard + coconut sugar cookies--the two things I really can't get in Utah county. 

Horizontal Running

I can't believe another Red Rock Relay has come and gone...

So much driving. So much laughing. So much FUN!

And let me just tell you about my team this year... we had all the originals from last year plus even more awesome people! Awesome as in they had a McDonald's diet Dr. Pepper (in a foam cup!) waiting for me after my last leg type of awesome. MY KIND OF PEOPLE! Also, my team was so nice and understanding about me having to miss my first leg because I couldn't miss work. Totally lucked out being on the Horizontal Runners team. 

I'm pretty sure that none of us Horizontal Runners really signed up to do this for the running. It was more for the hanging out in St. George, going to Swig, swimming, laughing at dirty jokes and staying up late with good company--making the getting hardly any sleep, hearing ghosts, and running with injuries totally WORTH IT! 

Seriously, I had so much fun this year and I can't help but hope that I'll be able to do it again next year with the same people... which is saying something when you've spent 31 hours in the car with someone. 

Click here to read about last year's adventures. 

The Sandy's Go Camping!

For the past few years my family has made it a tradition to camp on July 24th...

... in my parent's backyard. Ha!

But for some reason, my family decided that we should try REAL camping this year, like, go somewhere that there's no cell service and/or toilets that flush... so Payson Lakes it was! Which ended up being so, so fun. And I must say, for a family that never camps anywhere other than in the comfort of our parent's backyard, we did pretty dang good at "roughin' it." I mean, having your dad drive all the way home to "get more firewood" (shower) + have him bring back drinks from McDonald's + bringing your selfie stick is really roughin' it...right?! Baby steps...

Anyway, here are some highlights from Payson Lakes! Scroll, scroll, scroll!

+ FOOD FOOD FOOD AND MORE FOOD. Thanks mama Sanderson for feeding us better food than we eat at home! 

+ FOOD (again). Because, there really was so much crap to eat up there. Like, I considered going on a juice cleanse when I got back because that's how much junk food we had up there. 

+ My selfie stick + running out of daylight/phone battery.

+ Playing "I'm going on a trip"

+ Roasting anything and everything we could find. The most original being hi-chews with a marshmallow (don't diss it until you've tried it! Right, Mitch?!)

+ Fishing! ...and catching only one fish (by yours truly!)

+ Gagging to the point of nearly throwing up because of the bathrooms (and Evie crying because of them ha).

+ Paddle boarding/kayaking/watching Dash kayak

+ Grandpa putting Talon into "tonic paralysis" by scratching his back

+ A chipmunk eating half our loaf of bread

+ Going for a run around Payson Lakes

+ Mom making the ultimate comeback in horseballs

+ Getting rained on the first night

+ Introducing Cade to the crazy that is the Sanderson family

+ Staying up past midnight around the campfire 

+ "Hup! 2, 3, 4..."

+ Dad building his own tent over his truck (+ trying to get out of it at 5:30am)

+ Grandkids playing with glow sticks

+ Being informed by the camp hosts on our last day that we were too loud and had too many people in our sites. 

+ Embracing that Sanderson temper/pride and making sure to burn all of our extra fire wood so the hosts couldn't sell any of it after we left.

Yay Payson Lakes! 

... see you next year? 

Eh... at least our posterity can see that we did go camping somewhere besides mom and dad's backyard. 

The weekend Chris got me to karaoke

Hello, blog world! This last week was pretty crazy busy for me. Mostly because I had to work through Victoria's Secret semi-annual sale (SAS) all week and get yelled at by a customer who just couldn't believe we didn't have the scent strawberries and champagne. How could Vickie's not have it?! The nerve! Oh, and did I mention I saw that lovely customer again this morning while I was out running? Because I did. And I totally thought of all the things I wanted to say to her for a good mile or two...I know where you live, strawberries and champagne lady! ANYWAY. Back to how this last week was busy!...er...busy by Summer of Shay standards anyway. But busy doesn't always mean bad!  My weekend was busy, but the good kind of busy!

I started the weekend off by taking advantage of the fact that Orem Summer Fest is basically my backyard and went to the carnival with my niece and nephew!

Right before we went on the gravitron ride aka Chris' worst nightmare (just spinning the whole time). I've declared Dash my new ride buddy! Just need him to grow a couple more inches before we go to Lagoon. Also, squinty eyes.

Then Chris got home from work early and we took advantage by going to dinner at Mama Chu's (note to self: remember you don't like the salsa there--spicy!!). Then we set out for our double date with Adub and Sarah for some fishin' up at deer creek, which basically turned into one big photo op thanks to me (and the fish that wouldn't bite). 

But I wasn't the only one posing for pictures! Adub and Sarah were in plenty of pictures, too....even if they didn't know about half of them that I took. But aren't they cute?! Sigh... I remember when me and Chris were dating and always had to be touching too ;)

Finally after the sun went down, we started gettin' some bites! It was so fun! I feel like we got to spend some good quality time together. And by 'we', I mean me and Sarah, since the last hour of the date was really me and Sarah talking to each other while Chris and Adub continued to fish as we slowly made our way back to the dock. ha! 

Not pictured (and for good reason): Saturday I went straight from work up to West Jordan to meet Chris at his work party that he was in charge of. He did such a good job putting a work party together!...and ordering more Texas Roadhouse food than needed so that we could bring the leftovers home--he just gets me. Chris had told me all week that there was going to be a karaoke competition at the party and that there were prizes for the winners, so I had a lot of time to mentally prepare myself to watch Chris and others sing karaoke (I get embarrassed for people super easily). The whole way up to the party I just kept cringing at the thought of singing, and had also mentally prepared myself to say "no" if anyone tried to pressure me into it. Yeah... that lasted for about 30 minutes at the party. The next thing I know, I'm singing All About That Bass in front of dozens of strangers while Chris is shaking his butt in front of them! I was relieved to see most of them laughing, but after about a minute their laughs were gone, and I started to become aware of how tight my throat was getting and  how long that song actually is. Ah! I get the tard tingles just thinking about it now! But the pain and suffering that is singing karaoke was worth it! Chris got his village baker gift card, and I got shaky hands the rest of the night. That's true love, guys! 

The only thing that was able to stop my shaking hands that night was coming home to my family and fireworks! It's sort of become a tradition to watch the Summer Fest fireworks from our house and eat treats with everyone. Seriously, I am going to miss our town home when we buy a real house someday... I love where we are at! 

Also, isn't this picture so cool? That was supposed to be me and Chris kissing with the fireworks behind us, but Chris immediately rejected the idea (I think I pushed my luck out on the lake the day before ha), so Koree it was! But for some reason, Chris let me take a picture with him AFTER the fireworks... stinker. 

And... is anybody still reading? I realize this is getting a bit picture heavy, but I guess that's just what happens when you have an awesome weekend that totally makes up for working at Vickie's during SAS. One more week, guys...one more week! I can do it... even if the thought of censoring another bra or recovering one more panty table makes my eyes water. At least I have plenty of candy from the cute "Semi-Annual Sale Survival Kit" Chris made for me to get me through the last week? Oh, and the thought of leaving for St. George on Friday helps, too. 

Anyway, I'd love to stay and dump more phone pictures on you, but I have some leftover Texas Roadhouse rolls to go eat...

Happy Monday!

SaturDATE

Saturday marked the end of my first week of "The Summer of Shay," and I gotta say, if all my Saturdays this summer are like this one, I am completely okay with that--it was one of the best Saturdays I've had in a while!

It all started with Chris waking me up on Saturday morning chipper as can be and asking, "Are you going to eat cereal and play tennis with me this mernin'?" So that we did! I'm not sure if I'm getting a lot better at tennis or if Chris is getting really bad, but I actually beat him! So obviously it needs to be blogged about. Honestly it's probably because we've been playing pickle ball so much--our tennis game is so off! But I'll take any win against him I can get since Chris never let's me (or anyone for that matter) win. He's such a rat that way, but he just reassures me that it's to keep me humble.

Not pictured from our Saturday: Helping Tom G spread  mulch aka "human shit" (as my sister-in-law, Kat, reassured us it was) around Tom G's yard + me being the tarp girl making sure the human shiz didn't make a mess all over the lawn (a Tom G specialty job!). Even if the reality of it was us spreading shiz all around the yard, it ended up being so much fun to me! Mostly because we got to hangout with the Gourley gang and sip on some DP while doing so, but also because there is something almost therapeutic about working with your hands in the yard, no?! Does admitting that + fantasizing about planting my own garden mean I'm getting old? If so, sign me up!

After spending time with the Gourley gang, we had just enough time to come home and shower/blow all the mulch out of our nose before meeting up with my siblings (minus Haley. boo bunko!!) to eat at MooYahs (insert Hallelujah chorus here) and go laser tagging. Did I mention this was an "adults-only" date? Because it was. And it was awesome. Don't get me wrong, I love love love my nieces and nephews, but it's fun to spend time with my siblings when they don't have to worry about their kids + conversation about sex, farts/poop are a lot more frequent. We went laser tagging at Provo Towne Center in the tiniest laser tag place I've ever been, but it ended up being a lot of fun!

Pretty sure there was a lot more swearing/cheating than your average laser tag group, but that's why I love my family! We are hilarious... and competitive--to say the least. We also must be a sick, twisted, immature group since we could not stop laughing about the form Chris' back sweat took after laser tagging... 

Are we immature or are we immature? But don't tell me you don't see it, too!

To top off our Saturday, we stopped at Sonic and then talked about going to see a late night showing of The Avengers, but then our inner-senior citizen reminded us to calm the freak down and that bedtime is at 9:30, so we convinced ourselves that "we'll go see it next weekend..." and hopped into bed before 9:30 (seriously--sign me up for that old people life!). 

Pure bliss. 

weekending via bullet points

(how terrifying is Chris here?!)

+ We started our weekend off right by finally putting our gift card from Mama & Papa Gourley to use! Dear Texas Roadhouse, you complete me--and my thigh gap. Someday I'll be able to refuse the bread basket, but that day was definitely not Friday. 

+ Watching our cutest nieces in the mini cheer clinic + confirming Chris' worst nightmare--there's a good chance that our future daughters will be cheerleaders ;) But seriously, after all of my PE classes, I think cheer is the only sport I'm qualified to teach our children. Unless they want to learn how to spike a volleyball INTO a net. This all made for great conversation in my parent's hot tub. 

+  (not pictured)(for good reason) Cardio Muscle Mix Class with Shelby, which consisted of a lot of being shown up by middle-aged women + "holy $h*#! this hurts!" looks exchanged + shamelessly leaving 10 minutes early. Sisters are the best gym buddies. 

 + Sisters are also the best shoe shopping partners. I'm so glad Shelby was there to help me make sure I didn't buy any Nike's that were "chunky," "mommy," or "90's-looking" this weekend--I think we succeeded. Guys!  I'm seriously so pumped about my new shoes! I have never bought Nike's that weren't for cheer. I felt like a new woman! Like, where have you been all my life Nike? Even if I did kind of force Chris to compliment my new shoes (Babe don't you like my new shoes? You always say girls who wear Nike tennis shoes are hot! Do you think I'm hot?!), I could tell that he was proud of this purchase, too.

+ I crafted! Well, if you count putting stickers on sticks as crafting... but anyway, I loved how it turned out! I got my vase at Target, sticks from my mom's, and heart stickers from Dollar Tree. I'm thinking I might keep the sticks and change out the stickers to shamrocks for St. Patty's Day... I know, SO crafty of me!  

+ (also not pictured for good reason) The Super Bowl! aka Finger Food Day! And Katy Perry! Truth: I totally teared up when she sang Firework and...um... when Missy Elliott came out on stage (ha!) yes, I know--I got issues! So many feels, though! Speaking of feels... how sad were the commercials this year?! Not sure how I feel about it yet.  

- - - - - - - - - - -

This may not seem like that great of a weekend, but it's one of the better weekends I've had in a while--food, shopping, exercise, semi-crafting, family and more food! What better way to bring in February than with some of my favorite things?

I didn't realize how much I love February until I started thinking about it.... Valentine's! The Walking Dead! Presidents Day (no school!)! Shorter month! + One month closer to graduating. Ah!

I like you, February.

Girl's Weekend

Last weekend was the estrogen-filled weekend I have been needing! All the girls in my family headed down to St. George to do some craftin' at my aunt Leslie's (Darin's wife). As much as I hate to admit, I'm pretty sure the crafty gene skipped me. Thank goodness for crafty aunts and cousins who help me when I attempt to craft, though! And by help, I  mean basically do everything for me (bless you, JJ & Jen!). 

However, I would just like to point out that I am capable of spray painting canvases! Which happened a lot last weekend--I loved how everything turned out! I'm kicking myself for not taking more pictures of the all the crafts done by everyone else, though. There were ladders, vintage suitcases, and whole pieces of furniture painted and distressed, growth charts, picture frames, and so many cute holiday canvases made! It's crazy to think all of that was done in two days in a garage... my family doesn't mess around when it comes to craftin'!

Because, SWIG! Would you really expect me to be in St. George and not stop?!

^^ One of my favorite crafts. My cousin, Jenica, is a pro when it comes to the vinyl machine!

As you can see, it was a pretty successful weekend. Well, besides the fact that Shelbs got pulled over on the way down (sorry Shelbs-documenting purposes!), but the rest was the perfect swirl of laughing and food and Dr. Pepper and glitter and no sleep. I can't wait for the next girl's weekend where I can harass my family members to supervise me as I craft!