Ode to boxes

Yes, this is our home office.

You know, it's funny. Everyone that I tell we're packing up says the same thing: "Oh man, I hate moving." And I keep thinking, "okay, could at least try to be positive!" But the truth is, I've never done a real move before. I've moved a few boxes around while in college (I never really had that much stuff). And when we got married I just moved my few boxes into Mike's place. So I've never really done the "I have a lot of nice stuff that I don't want to get scratched" move. Until now. Mike and I are getting ready to move (Wednesday is the big day), and we are slowly realizing it will be a bit more painful than we originally imagined. Luckily, we have awesome people to help out (thanks all you that are helping). I just hope and pray that it all goes smoothly. Wish us luck! I'll post some sweet Chicago pictures soon (once we actually get there)...

CFA news

Mike spent all spring studying for the level 1 CFA test (Chartered Financial Analyst). He just found out today that he passed! Congrats to Mike! We just went to lunch to celebrate.

Happy Birthday Mike!

Since Mike is the most wonderfully perfect husband in the whole world, I took him rock climbing for his birthday. It was a blast. Although after 3 hours I was so sore that my arms felt like jello.

...and planned a superstar bithday dinner.

"Wow check out this sweet strawberry pie!"

I know it may sound funny to want a pie instead of birthday cake, but that's what Mike wanted. So attempted to make it for him. Keep in mind that it was the first time in my entire life I had ever made a strawberry rhubarb pie...growing up in California we didn't eat pies a whole lot. It was a fun adventure. Miraculously, it actually turned out pretty good!

Mike helped me plan the

dinner menu:

bruschetta

steamed asparagus with roasted garlic aioli

campanelli with asparagus, basil, and balsamic glaze

strawberry rhubarb pie, a la mode

And then...I took Mike to see Transformers.

You may be thinking (unless you're a guy): "Out of all the movies, that is the one movie he wanted to see most??" The answer is yes.

Surprisingly, I liked it too. I think it helped that he warned me that there probably wouldn't be much of a plot, just a lot of explosions.

Happy bithday Mike. I just adore you.

Vacation: Rafting the Salmon River

We're finally back from our week-long trip with the Featherstones rafting the main fork of the Salmon River. What a blast! It was my first time, and I made it back alive. Mike loved it since he hasn't been in 10 years.

The Featherstone cousins on the paddle boat. We went over some killer rapids! Good thing we had Jake and Josie guiding us. We never flipped--thanks heavens!

Mike and Erin at the beach. The last time Mike was on the river, he spent a whole summer rafting, hauling gear, and being a stunt double shooting the movie "The Same River Twice." Needless to say, he was very happy to be back. "It's been too long" he says.

Hannah, Joe, and Kate (Mike's sisters and dad). It was Hannah, Kate and my first time. And out of 18 people, we were the only three girls!

Mike, Erin, Kate and Hannah. It was so hot that we put our chairs in the water! We're waiting for the jet boat here.

Check out this rapid. This is right around where Louis and Clark (and Sacajawea) turned back, dubbing this river the "River of No Return." Lucky us--we had paddle boats instead of wooden canoes. Don't you love modern technology?

Mike and Erin loving life on the river.

We kept saying to each other, "I don't want to go back to real life yet..." The cool thing about the trip is the wilderness was so pristine and cleansing, you almost forget what real life is like...

There's Grandpa V watching the frisbee game. He was quite the swimmer on the trip! The water was never too cold for him.

Our favorite game: "body womping." We made a water slide by turning the paddle boat upside down. You get a running start, and then everyone holding the boat bounces you up at the last minute so you go flying. It was so much fun to watch!

Here's Jayma. We all wondered, "How can he sleep like that??!" Heh heh--so we had to capture it on camera.

Here we are on Neno's boat. What a fun trip.

We have to say thanks to Uncle Scotty and everyone who worked so hard to put this on. What a blast.

Also thanks to everyone that guided our boat safely through the toughest rapids. We rode with these guides: Neno, Sam, Joe, Uncle Scotty, and Jake/Josie. We never flipped once!

We hosted a Goodbye Party (not for us)

We had a goodbye party for two of our favorite families in Salt Lake. The party was a blast, and Neesha's strawberry cake was out of this world. We were shocked we could actually fit 21 people in our house. If you have ever been to our place, you know it's not exactly gigantic. The most hilarious part were the little kids, twins including, that wanted to get into every cupboard we have! Let's just say that our house is not exactly "baby-proofed" yet. Our friends are moving out to do great things, but it will be sad to see them go.

Goodbye Summers, and goodbye Wests! We'll miss you!

Irvine Party

We found out Lani was living in Sugarhouse with her cute husband so we had them over for an unofficial Irvine get-together. It was great, and we got to know Mike (her hubby) a bit better. Lani is looking so adorable these days and seriously has the coolest job. It was great to catch up. We convinced her to think about setting up a blog, so that will be fun. We also celebrated Shanny's birthday while we were at it. Thanks Lani for bringing the yummy cake!

How do you say no to Paris?

Mike sent the official "turn-down" email to INSEAD today. (Clarification: INSEAD is that MBA school in Paris/Singapore that Mike applied to...the school specializes in churning out international consulting students.) They wanted to interview him in either AZ/CO/CA, so Mike thought long and hard about whether to fly out or not. In the end he decided not to waste the money when he was pretty sure he wanted to go to Chicago GSB.

I would have loved to live in both Paris and Singapore, but Mike promises that Chicago's study abroad in Paris is top notch. So it sounds like I can now officially start saying..."Chicago here we come!"

Tea time with the girls

We went to tea on Wednesday at the Grand America.

I ordered raspberry tea. It was quite a lovely time.

At the Grand America.

Gotta love tea!

Fiesta!

FIESTA!

On Saturday we had a fiesta at our place. Shannon and John made chile rellenos (yum), and Jon and Shae taught us how to make empenadas from Chile (so good). Luke brought the chips and salsa, and we made the guacamole and dessert! It was a night of adventure...

The three amigos...the Featherstone brothers

Shannon and John's chile rellenos were to die for!

Shae wearing the sombrero...

Trying our luck at making Chilean empenadas.

Dancing the night away to the salsa beat...


Shannon, John, Mike and I realized that although we hang out every week, we don't have any pictures of the four of us...so we took one during the fiesta.

It's already been a YEAR?

Yesterday was May 6...exactly one year since Mike and I were married. It's already been a YEAR? We couldn't believe how fast the time flew...

Here are some memories from our first anniversary. We started a tradition where we switch off planning anniversaries. ex. Mike will plan one year, then I'll plan the next. So Mike got to plan this one. Lucky guy.

We celebrated on Saturday with a day of festivities.

First up: tennis. He surprised me with a morning of outdoor tennis. Fun! But the only problem was when we left the house, it started raining! Bummer. No tennis for us.

Next up: a French-style picnic outside. Oh, but of course it was still raining. (chuckle) So we spread out the sheet inside, and had our picnic complete with a baguette, Brie cheese, grapes, tomato slices and Perrier (okay, Mike got Evian for me, since I can't stand bubbly "no-taste" water). Yum.

Then: dinner at the Tree Room. After our afternoon break (Mike studied, I hit the treadmill), Mike surprised me with reservations to my favorite restaurant in the whole world. What a cool surprise! Yes, I will admit, it takes an hour to drive down there (the restaurant is in Sundance), so we had to sacrifice two hours round trip, but it was so worth it. I got the seared Ahi Tuna. Ahhhh heaven. Funny side note: we ordered the fresh potato ravioli as an appetizer, and when it came, there were only THREE ravioli squares (chuckle). Oh, I guess that's what we signed up for. But every bite of the three squares was divine.

Sunday (our actual anniversary): Memory grove. After church we walked around Memory Grove, which is the coolest park in Salt Lake City--it's at the foot of the canyon and the Capitol. And lucky us, the whole time we got to do flash cards for Mike's CFA test! Mike's been stressed about it lately so every spare moment we get I've been quizzing him with flash cards. As we walked around I couldn't help but laugh because people probably thought we were either crazy, or talking in another language. Imagine hearing people say things like "Mike, define and calculate: Yield Measures, Spot Rates, and Forward Rates." Yeah, okay, I don't understand it either. (chuckle) But aren't I a good sport?

I love flash cards!

Walking along City Creek. Notice I have conspicuously hidden the flashcards in my coat pocket. You'd never know!

Later Sunday: dinner with the Featherstones. Every Sunday we join Mike's family for dinner and dessert and the best entertainment you can get for free. They even made us a poster for our anniversary! Marianne made her divine pound cake with fresh strawberries, and it reminded me once again how awesome the Featherstones are. It also reminded me how pale my pound cake is compared to hers. (chuckle)

Also congrats to Shae (wife to Jon, Mike's brother) who graduated from college this week! Go get 'em girl...