It's time to check in and let everyone know we're still around. David was commenting that our lives have fallen into a very consistent routine. We work, we come home, we eat dinner and go to the gym and repeat. But there's a joy to consistency too and it makes different things all the more fun. So here's some routine mixed in with some unique experiences.

Snowboarding Saturdays

This had become fairly routine and then David mixed it up and we went to the Canyons Resort instead of Park City- we love it! I feel like I've really learned a lot and had more fun here and David gets fun lawn chairs and music at the bottom of the hills he beats me down.

David kickin' it

We've also been splurging at this lodge that's on top of this crazy high mountain and getting lunch. It makes it feel like a date in the middle of our long days. In less exciting news, though I've mastered double blue hills the chair lifts still dominate me. Seriously, all my bruises are chairlift departure fails.

Gym Nights

We got gym memberships towards the end of last year and we've really gotten back into strength training. The most motivational part for me is my polar fit heart rate monitor I got for my birthday. It has a chest strap and a watch where I can see my heart rate and calories burned. When I don't push hard my heart rate is lower so I check and make sure I'm working hard throughout the hour we're there.

(I was really proud of this day- mostly strength training)

In other news, the gym is a gold mine if you like to people watch. My friend Johanna had told us man buns were a hipster trend now and when I saw this "bunned" couple I snapped a sneaky picture and sent it to her. I feel like I'm mostly disconnected from trends now I'm not in school, but the gym is one place I get a funny view into the current trends again.  

Saturdate

This last weekend we went on a lunch date to JDawgs and then check out the new life sciences building at BYU down the street. It's pretty massive and we had fun exploring it.

This is one of the outdoor patios.

It's very open so you can see up a few floors, kind of like the Tanner building. The difference is that it's not quite as open and there are windows to the outside so there's a lot of natural light. (Sidenote: I feel like this photo deserves a catcall- nice buns!)

We started walking around campus to look at other construction and ended up sneaking around the law library because why not? I had never been inside thought it would be fun to look around.

Besides the many busts of Abraham Lincoln they also had lots of fancy couches. As we were talking about fancy couches David remembered I had mentioned a floor sale at a furniture store in Orem. So off we went to see if we could finally find a couch we like.

We've been looking for a couch for a while now so we can actually have company over. Our little red love seat just isn't cutting it anymore. We walked in and the first couch we saw met all our requirements.

It was kind of a miracle because they probably had 3 sectionals total. We measured and bought it that day (not this exact configuration, but you get the idea). So this little beauty is the first piece of new furniture we've bought together; everything else has been gifted/thrifted.

Sundance Bay Investor Conference

Besides, the keynote speech by Governor Romney the entire evening was wonderful and I felt lucky to experience it. It was held at the St. Regis hotel in Park City which meant everything was beautiful, but beyond that the entire night was so interesting. 

First, the partners at Sundance presented their business strategy, progress and successes to all the major investors and it made me so proud of David because his contributions were integral in making it all happen. Then following dinner Governor Romney gave a wonderful presentation that made me sad again that he's not running. He spoke about how the United States needs a vision for its future. 

Specifically measurable objectives, a strategy to reach the objectives and then tactics that make up that strategy. He asked if any of us knew the US's strategy or objective for Russia or ISIS or even for problems like our educational system. I laughingly told David that Mitt was a PR major at BYU. For four years I had this exact same strategic plan pounded into me at BYU: objectives, strategy, tactics. He also talked about the wonderful things about the US and about the importance and value of patriotism and citizenship. I'm as guilty as any other millennial of apathy or maybe more accurately pessimism about our political process, but he made me want to be more engaged and optimistic. 

He opened the floor up to questions and that was really interesting as well. He spoke about world leaders he admires- Churchill, Angela Merkel, David Cameron- and mostly because they have vision and strategy. He mentioned Putin (of course) and said though he obviously isn't the guys biggest fan, you can tell Putin has a strategic objective he's carrying out. 

Governor Romney was also asked how you can know a good investment when you see one. I loved his answer! You can't just tell right off the bat- he himself would "bathe in the data" of a company when he was consulting or later when he was buying companies before he made a purchase or recommended changes. You have to put in a lot of hard work and look at every angle before you can know a good investment. In a world where everyone thinks they're entitled to something or there's some magic shortcut to success, I loved his realism. It's about hard work. 

And of course, he addressed the 2012 election. This book by some professors analyzed 2012 and basically came to the conclusion it would have been impossible for anyone to beat an incumbent president when the perception was that the economy was improving. Incumbent presidents have huge war chests not spent in long expensive primaries and have an advantage because they have the presidential platform to get their issues out through. Plus, pocketbook issues are convincing and Romney wasn't promising cheap healthcare to everyone. It was awesome to hear him analyze the election and realize he has come to terms with the result and is still committed to being a leader, in whatever way he can be.

After which the filmmaker, Greg Whiteley, introduced his film, Most Likely To Succeed, which just aired at Sundance a couple weeks ago. I might have shed a tear during it. Afterwards David and I talked about what we can do to make sure our kids get a more beneficial education experience than the one currently offered at most public schools. The goal is to get the movie out on Netflix and some other internet viewing platforms and I would definitely recommend it.

Sorry for the novel, but it's fun to share and remember! 

I can't believe it's 2015 already! December flew by and it's crazy that we're already well into the new year. Here's a quick run down of the end of our 2014.

IKEA Exploration

We've moved into our basement apartment and we're planning on living there for the foreseeable future. As we've been getting comfortable down there, we've realized we really want more living room seating than a loveseat. So we took trip to the furniture mecca that is the IKEA shopping center in Draper. 

Neither David or I had been to an IKEA and it was insane. Some sadistic marketers came up with that labyrinth. 

It took some brain power to figure out how this place worked ;) And sadly all we ended up with was a napkin holder. We hit 3 other furniture stores while we were there. We got kind of burned out of couch shopping for the time being. But as David just put it, "One day we'll buy a couch and it will be amazing."

Family Hangouts

Mike and Allison hosted the holiday Smith family birthday get together. We enjoyed hanging out, having fun with their Apple TV and playing games. It's always great to see these guys- it makes living in Utah so much fun. 

We also had a chance to go have dinner at Jared and Michelle's. It's awesome to have cousins in the same stage of life to hang out with and talk with. We also played Catan with them like we do every time we get together- it seems like we're all pretty competitive haha.

Epic Local Passes

Lots of people have asked David what he planned to do with himself now the house is done. Here's his plan in a nutshell- snowboard. Or to be more specific, buy epic local passes, get gear, and teach Laura how to snowboard. 

Here's us trying it all out. David got us all of our gear in a day. Thank you KSL classifieds.

Me concentrating on my toes. It's all about the toes in snowboarding it turns out.

Here's David patiently waiting for me on the bunny hill. We've gone 4 or 5 times now and I can now say I can snowboard. I'm not great, but I can make it down green hills fine. I'm still working on it but it's getting to be more fun, less painful and less bruise-inducing. 

Christmas in California

This year we went to my parent's in California for Christmas. We enjoyed Christmas eve day at a local shooting range. David and my brothers took turns shooting birdies, and the whole family had fun trying handgun shooting. That night we kept up the annual tradition of caroling to the neighbors. Last time we did this, David and I had been married for less than a week!

Christmas was also fun, with lots of game playing, present giving dart guns and yummy treats. We also loved talking to Hunter from the mission field and hearing how well he's doing.

The Monday before Christmas my parents treated us to a night out starting with sushi and ending with the musical Wicked at the Pantages theater in Hollywood.

Turns out my youngest brothers have convinced my mom sushi is good and now they all go on sushi dates.

None of us had seen Wicked before and it was a fun venue to experience it at.

We checked out the stars on the Hollywood walk of fame before the show started. My dad kept Googling all the ones he didn't recognize on his phone.

It was fun hanging out with Gage and Preston and seeing how their relationship has changed. Instead of bickering little kids, they've become cool high school brothers (for the most part).

And I no longer have any "little" brothers; they're both giants. 

Once inside the Googling did not stop; my Dad told us all about the art deco past of the Pantages theater. 

Wicked Map on the stage at the start of the show.

It has a very old hollywood feel to it, which was fun. 

We all enjoyed the show and I had the music stuck in my head for the next week. David caught the foreshadowing about how it would end- ironically my family and I were more surprised even though we've listened to the music before. David for the win!      

We also got to go to Long Beach and visit Grandma Varin and to Brea to see the Hatch family. It's nice to see lot's of family to make road trips even better. When we came back we also got to hang out with David's immediate family for New Years. 

We're having a great 2015 so far and we can't wait to see what the rest of this year brings!