Graduation 2.0 + Canyon BBQ!

Hallelujah!!

(to say the least) 

The last two years of my life I've been a little busy reading Harvard Business School Cases. And writing papers on them. But not until I've completed a late-into-the-night group project on that case. And then changed our mind so we had to start over. But then one of the numbers was off in part A, so we needed to start over again. When we change that we have to change the marketing mix, our WACC, the elasticity of our company, and project schedule/budget and plan.

You can see why, on this glorious graduation day, I seem to be a little crazy. 

:)

Nevertheless, it is here!! Graduation baby. A lot has happened in the past two years, the most important being my handsome husband. His optimistic, calming personality was the only way I survived all of those cases. Just ask my classmates- I was a different girl when I started school. Let's just call it a little bit more..... Haha ok nevermind let's just call it what it is- I was more crazy! I was anxious, stressed, and always seemed to have too much on my plate. 

Enter Brad. 

He is unbelievable at being steady. Oh he gets excited (a lot), and sometimes (rarely) is down too. But he has a wonderful gift of seeing the world in perspective. He doesn't get stressed about the little stuff and handles everything in a very reasonable way. And the best part- he's rubbing off on me :) I'm a much different person than I was in August 2012. I like to call it more mature!

It's looks like a great day to Graduate!

Here it is! The real deal. Master of Business Administration. 

After all the walking and commencing, we got a little bored during the rest of the name reading...

Just keepin it real :) 

 Best Friends

I have a pretty great support team!

 (I felt like this was wedding pictures all over again haha)

 

My parents are amazing! They encouraged me, supported me and yes laughed WITH me every step of the way. Thank you for all you do! 

Sometimes it is good to be fancy :) After graduation we went to the Little America Steakhouse- yum!

Business school is was hard. That pretty much sums it up. But seeing where I am today and looking over the last 2 years, it was incredibly gratifying. I got a full-time job offer from the Church! I've been interning there since January, and I've loved it.  I work as a project manager on the Meetinghouse Technologies team. Incredibly interesting projects and truly gratifying work. I feel so grateful to work where I do and know I wouldn't be there without my education.  Graduate on Friday, and start full-time on Monday- I'd say that was a pretty good turn around!

Now- time to party!

May is my favorite month. But I think this year especially.  We wanted to celebrate both graduation and my Bday, so we invited a bunch of friends up the canyon! We had so much fun! Brad and I went up a little early on Saturday to claim a site and to set up!

The before...

My pyro husband!

Literally a happy camper!

 We had a lot of fun! Good times with good friends.

 

 Oh and ps- Happy Mother's Day! This also means talking to our little brother's. Kyle got to skype. We skyped him via FaceTime haha. We love technology.

Tight and Fast

Ok folks, here's how it is. Dani has gotten me into cycling. Road cycling. I absolutely love it. Little did I know when I joined this sport, that to be accepted into the fraternity of road cyclists, you have to wear tight, flashy clothing. This makes sense as you are trying to go as fast as possible as long as possible with as little wind resistance as possible. When you are as light as me, the smallest gust of wind feels like a hurricane blowing me over. So we recently invested in some tight clothing for me. 

Please excuse the awkwardness of the photo as I was still trying to figure out how it fit.

That jersey makes me feel fast. I am fast. I may have just found my career path.

Brad's Birthday & Update

 Well Brad turned the big 2-3! Wahoo! We both have been looking forward to his birthday for a while :) Unfortunately we both had class/work until about 9pm on his actual birthday, so it was celebrated over a few days instead of the day itself. But it all started with a yummy breakfast and a few little (cycling related) gifts in the morning to tide him over until that night!

I picked up some dinner on the way home from class and Brad and I had a late night meal of his favorite thing on this planet: Chipotle. Haha.

And it was also time to give him the gift I had been so excited about for the past few weeks! Brad got this awesome portrait of Portugal while he was on his mission.  And ever since it has been rolled up in the closet with a twisty-tie. So I kind of stole it and wanted to get it framed for him! The framing places were all asking a ridiculous amount of money because it was oversized and with odd dimensions, so I took matters into my own hands :) My Dad's buddy Andrew does a lot of wood-working as his hobby! You see where this is going... we went out and got all the stuff to build our own frame! And I have to say it turned out awesome. I don't know who was more excited- Brad or I! It was really cool to make it from scratch.  Given, Andrew did a ton, but I helped with all of it and got the matting glass and all that good stuff. Brad was so surprised and so excited! Success :) Now we just have to get it on our wall.... 

And somewhere in the birthday week we went to see the Hunger Games! WooHoo! We are big fans and this movie did not disappoint.  Loved it!

 And then it was conference weekend! What a wonderful weekend.  We relaxed watching the first session on Saturday and then we went a little crazy and did our first sprint triathlon! Are we crazy? Yes, a little bit, but it was a lot of fun.  Now our bodies know what it feels like and now we also have A LOT more respect for Tri-athletes. It was hard!

Us and The Schoumans, they killed it.

 And once the swimming, biking, and running was all over it was finally time for the second session of conference and Brad's traditional Birthday Dinner! Burgers with all the fixins, Cheddar Cheese Ruffles, Lemonade, Potato Salad and of course- Chocolate cake and plenty of milk :) What would this boy do without his milk when he has desserts?? That is a Brown thing, the Schaap thing is ice cream! Haha either way it was delicious!

I loved Brad's birthday celebration week.  We even extended it more by going to Buffalo Wild Wings the next week with The Curtis' and Blackners (Basically the Blackners :) ).  And apparently didn't have time to take a picture in between wings. haha.

 So now we are just doing a lot of this....

 And making a lot of these...

Oh and my new found hobby- Gardening!! I am almost done with school and don't quite know what to do with spare time! My real hobby is cooking (bet you never guessed that), so why not extend that and grow my own ingredients?? I am pumped. Really though.  Cutest garden ever! Now we will probably plant our warm stuff this weekend. YES! 

 AND Happy Easter! Here comes Peter Cotton Tail... Here is an example of what looked like a cute Easter treat. WRONG! Talk about frustrating.  These were the hardest eggs in the world to peel. Tweet Tweet Chomp.

My thoughts exactly.

XOXO

{last} Weekend Update

No this is not the Jimmy Fallon/Tina Fey version of Weekend Update, but I do have some good stuff. 

Whew! Last weekend was a blast! We did A LOT. This week we've done a lot. But most importantly, we have pictures of it ---->

Ok so date night with Blake and Spence to Red Rock (yum) and then sommmmebody gets the idea that we need to go check out some new hardware. So we hit up Best Buy, Costco, and finally RC Willey.  Here are the results. 

Shoes Off. Completely Relaxed. He is hilarious!

Then we tried out the massage/anti-gravity chairs...

"Excuse me sir, can I get you a creamie to make your RC Willey experience more enjoyable?" 

 Then, RC Willey, bless their hearts, were giving away free pizza stones that day! Yes! Soooo the next night you can guess what we made for dinner!

Shaina & Jeff- you better watch out! There may have to be a pizza throw-down!!!

Half Margherita, Half Steakhouse with A1 even! Yes, we will be making this again. And again.

Getting ready for church!

PS This is after I cut 5 inches off my hair... I promise. See next picture haha.

 It was a fabulous weekend! We loved every minute of it! 

ANNNND I just realized I never posted about my fun little get-away to Seattle! Sisters weekend!! Mel was on Spring (?) Break, Em had lost Jesse to tax season, Shaina drove down from Grandview, and I came in for a fun weekend to spend with my sisters! 

This whole sister concept is new to me- and can I say that I LOVE it? Don't be fooled by the picture below, this is not two separate families, I am the in-law. However, I do seem to fit right in? Or make Emily fit right in? Haha, either way- I love having sisters!

And for that matter- I love having nephews and niece! Steve, Dan, Jay and Rose- I loved spending time with them because we just don't get to see them as much as we'd like to! Here are the few pics I have :) 

I stole this one from Shaina's blog because it was so cute!

And this one just cracks me up. Church. haha Drool puddle!

This trip was seriously so fun. Girl time, nephew/niece time. Loved every minute of it :) Thanks to all who made that possible!

And most of all I just love this guy.

 

THE bike.

Yes, we finally got THE bike.

The bike that we have looked for in just about every shop in the SL valley.

The bike that they only make 12 of per year.

The bike that accomodates B's large-ness.

*And most importantly, the bike that matches his bike shoes I got him for Christmas :)

Ok maybe that is not the most important, but is never a bad thing to look good!

BEHOLD- The bike!

It really is a thing of beauty, I won't lie. 

2012 Specialized Roubaix Expert, Brand-spanking-new, super nice(fast) Mavic wheels, Ultegra components. Bottom line- Brad got top of the line!! I guess that is a bonus to being so tall. They don't make the crap bikes in tall sizes, only the nicest ones!

And the best part of the bike: The dinky little bell on the handlebars. It instantly takes this perfecly engineered piece of carbon fiber from being a highly respected racing bike--- to a 10 year old girl riding home from school.

And he dings it every chance he gets :) Haha.

The weather was not cooperating for a few weeks after we got it, but since the sun has joined us again, last week we went 5 days in a row! Yes, I even took him on the initiation ride of Emigration Canyon.  And big surprise: He absolutely killed it. Like barely even seemed phased! How annoying! I'm telling you this man was built to ride. He is fast and is only going to get faster. Watch out SLC. Besides his incredibly broad shoulders, he looks like a full-blown cyclist!

However, besides his incredible ability for this sport, we are having a lot of fun TOGETHER.  It is the best to ride together after a full day of work/school! The sun shining, big mama hill climbs, speedy downhills, good times :) What a fantastic hobby for us to do until our legs don't work anymore! But that is far in the future- so for now we he will look something like

THIS

#hellosummer

4 Years.

Well hello fellow bloggers and social media followers. Once again it is Brad. It was suggested by my wonderful wife that I blog about the past little while and since I have nothing to do on a Friday morning- I figured I would whip up a quick update on our lives since you are all dying to know. 

So four whole years ago was a big night in our relationship. I took a huge gamble. To make a good story short, I actually KISSED Dani on Valentines Night. Talk about taking a plunge. Four years (a mission and a year of being in denial) later, we are living happily ever after. So as much as Hallmark Holidays can be kind of cheesy, V-Day is kinda a big deal for us. Here is a picture from this years Valentines Day Dinner.

This year's menu consisted of fancy cheese and bread, expertly seasoned and  seared halibut, roasted brussel sprouts and potatoes and a molten lava cake for dessert. My taste buds were screamin' for joy. Delicious.

 And here is a picture from last years dinner (cracked peppercorn cream sauce with steak, caesar salad, bruchetta, roasted asparagus with parmesan, again, delicious).

As you can see, we like to have cranberry juice in wine glasses.

  Also last year.

 

This is us 4 years ago as best friends just hanging out. Boy do I look 12 years old. How did I get so lucky?

In other news, basketball is nearing its end. During halftime recently, the Utah Jazz Dunk team visited and put on a show. I sure wish I could have seen it but Dani took a video for me. What you don't know is I don't need a trampoline to do these tricks.

Well, life is great. Enough said, right?

Busy Little Bees

Well it has been a while...

That is because we have been running around like crazy! 2012 has flown.  Crazy! It is already February and I can't even believe it.  Let's play a little catch up here.  I started my internship working for the Church.  What a whirlwind of an experience! I work closely with the Meetinghouse Technologies department.  So any technology that is in the meetinghouse- that is us! It's been over a month now, and I have to say I've been involved in some pretty cool projects already. Not to mention an article I wrote was published in the Church News (Whhatttt?)!

Along with working, Brad and I also started school.  My LAST semester of school I might add.  Forever.  Never again.  No more tuition.  No more finals, studying or freaking school group projects.  Dunzo. 

Unless it is culinary school. Just saying.

But I'm {almost} done! WAHOO! Words cannot describe...!

But yeah, we started school.  For a math lover hater, Brad is being baptized by fire.  His first stats class AND first Calc class-same semester.  Yikes! But he is being very diligent and really catching on quickly, I'm so proud! He might even start loving Excel if he hangs around me any longer!

Basketball is also in full swing.  It's been an interesting season, to say the least.  We won't mentioned the 12 hour bus rides to Montana, or the endless Subway sandwiches as of recently.  But we will mention that the team is home 3/4 weekends in February! Double yay from me! I love home games because I love watching Brad play, but also because it is a perfect excuse to invite friends to come watch! Like this picture for example. 

And bonus- it was Curtis' bday the next day, and we went over to celebrate! 2 days in a row!! YES! But really though, I love when our friends come to B's games.  SO fun to catch up and watch a little bball.  More pictures to come after the next 3/4 weekends :)

Well what else has been going on? We are just getting used to being super busy again.  We usually go 12 hrs in between seeing each other every day... Not exactly ideal.  But we are still finding time to have fun together. And maybe even when we aren't together! Last weekend I went to a cooking class while Brad was out of town! A wonderful and extremely thoughtful Christmas gift from cute Brad.  It was really fun and I was totally in my element... Fresh Pasta this time.  Ravioli anyone?

Beet red fresh pasta with a ricotta, spinach filling topped with a brown butter and sage sauce.  Winner. Along with a Spinach pasta with Butternut squash filling and a seafood bisque sauce.  Also favorite, but not as much.

Blake and I were stellar students! Monica in the cooking class on FRIENDS anyone?

 Thanks for the really fun Christmas gift Brad! (Also- we really missed you Kenz!) We are already scoping out our next one. 

Well that is a pretty good sum of what has been going on! Brad and I are also having lots of  "super-secret-planning-sessions" to plan a certain graduation trip... :)  If you are a Brown Sibling, then you know all about these super-secret-planning-sessions!

Until next time! (PS-that class session was well spent)